Carnivore Series: Bloodfeud of the Offspring
by ChuckyDoll
Summary: Chomper has happily lived in the Great Valley with his friends. However, Red Claw is becoming more of a threat not only to those in the Mysterious Beyond, but also to the land that has become an asylum for the Herbivores. It is up to The Benign Predator to understand the secrets surrounding Red Claw and his own familial past.
1. Prologue

Prologue

Echo, having just left her parents, searched around a certain canyon for some time. She hadn't eaten for two days and the dryness in her mouth was starting to get to her. She would occasionally pierce the tip of her tongue against one of her razor sharp teeth in order to taste blood and wet her mouth, but the pain would turn out not to be worth it.

She picked up a scent of a few oviraptors and her mouth moistened. She raised her nose to take in another breath of that scent, later following it. The scent led Echo to a strange location where a large boulder seemed to hang overhead. She wondered if this thing could possibly fall and crush her when she saw a pair of oviraptors, one pink and the other blue. Behind them were two children, one pink and one blue. Her hunger taunting her, she waited for a moment, watching the adults pace carefully out of their hiding spot. Then, she attacked.

The blue male was easier to take out, thanks to the element of surprise. He could barely turn around before she leaped on him and ripped off his head with a relatively clean bite.

The female, having had some warning, was much harder. Echo had to chase her around the damn canyon and was nearly out of breath when she finally managed to corner her near the carcass that was once her mate. However, before she could turn around, the two children were missing.

* * *

"In here!"

Jade and Sphene looked at each other, then at the Fast Biter, and then at the strange furry creature, hidden behind a corner that led to a dark path. They reluctantly followed him, avoiding the sight of their dead parents, and managed to safely escape the Fast Biter.

Jade and Sphene looked at the dark cavern around them and, out of fear, started to cry. Jade leaned on Sphene, weeping for her mother, and Sphene cried for his father. The mammalian creature looked around, fretting about something, and placed his paws gently on both of them.

"Shh, shh," said the creature. "You gotta be quiet. That Fast Biter could have heard you."

"I want my momma!" Jade cried, clutching tightly to Sphene.

"Shh, shh, before they hear you," he said. "Or just, uhh, come a little deeper in this cave."

Jade and Sphene followed him until it was almost completely dark. The youngsters' cries ceased and the creature attempted to soothe them, only somewhat succeeded. Nevertheless, they grew to trust him.

"Now, uhh, what are ya guys's names?"

The little girl wiped her eyes first. "I'm Jade. Sphene is my brother."

"I'm Skip!" said the creature.

Jade stepped forward, examining Skip. She reached out to touch his arm, feeling his fur, and then looked at his slightly moving wet nose and his beady eyes, which gazed at her curiously. The fur made her feel ticklish.

"Sphene," she murmured. "Come feel. It tickles, kinda."

Sphene approached him slowly, poking his other arm and stroking it with fascination. He cocked his head, confused by the sensation and by the creature's strange warmth. Jade watched her brother's puzzlement.

"It's warm," he muttered. "It's really warm."

"Well, he-he, I'm a mammal," explained Skip. "My body makes its own heat. I have to eat a lot more than reptiles my size because of that."

"His skin is wet," whispered Sphene.

"Well, I'm sweating. It's really hot out there."

"You are very strange," Jade said. "But you're nice."

"Thank you," said Skip before he scurried off into the caves.

Jade and Sphene remained close together as they struggled to follow him. They both became uncomfortable with the cold temperature around them, as there was an unpleasant drift going through the cave. They stuck together, but there was no body heat that they couldn't generate alone, so it was pointless. Sphene cocked his head in confusion.

"Why would he leave?"

"I have a family to find!" called Skip before stopping. "You can follow me if you want, but I can't guarantee safety."

Jade and Sphene didn't even have to look at each other before making a decision. They raced after him, partially because they needed a parent figure and partially because they didn't see any other choice.

* * *

"What is it?" Sphene asked.

Jade shrugged.

"It's a dead Sharptooth," said Skip, examining the rotting thing.

Skip circled around it rather quickly, looking at which parts have already been bitten, rotted through, or just plain torn up. He saw that the head still have some green scales on it and the eye, which was only half open and part of it covered by parasites, showed red pigmentation. He couldn't tell the sex of the deceased predator, but he saw that the size was a bit unusual. Too large to be female, too small to be male.

"But then again," he muttered very quietly. "This kind of Sharptooth doesn't have very many height differences between males and females. Heh, not very many Sharpteeth in general, for that matter."

"How long before you find your kids?" Sphene asked, holding Jade tightly.

"I don't know if I'll ever find them," Skip admitted sadly. "Why, you lookin' for somebody?"

"Our sister," Jade replied, shuffling her small feet. "She went to some abundant valley with a little Sharptooth like that," she said, pointing to the dead thing Skip looked at moments ago.

Skip's head raised, his eyes staring straight at Jade. She guessed that he had some familiarity with the two individuals mentioned. Skip scurried away from the carcass and toward Jade, standing up on his hind legs and his front paws held close together. He seemed to be deep in thought.

"I can lead you to them," Skip responded. "Now let's get out of here. I don't like being out in the open desert. I sweat too much."

Jade and Sphene giggled at the mention of sweating and reached out to touch his moistened fur. They immediately pulled back their hands at the odd sensation and followed him away from the dead Sharptooth. As the trio disappeared into the horizon, the carcass was left to rot.

* * *

**Hey, fellow readers!**

**This work (I may or may not have mentioned this in the summary) is a sequel to my other story, Teeth of a Huntress. You'll likely be able to understand this story stand-alone, but if you like giggling to yourself about being able to recognize different references, then go ahead and read the prequel first.**


	2. Part 1: Chapter 1

**Part One: The Great Valley**

Chapter 1

"Hello Chomper!" called Ruby, who, just moments later, became frustrated at being ignored. "Chomper, hello!"

"Oh, hi, Ruby," he said, not originally noticing her.

"Is something wrong, Chomper?" Ruby asked with her high-pitched voice, approaching him and gently touching his shoulder. "If there is something, and it _is _wrong, it'd be good to tell someone."

"I'm trying to find Spike," Chomper replied, ignoring her and sniffing around the leaves, which had a rather repulsive smell to them. "I know he's very close."

Ruby stood behind him, looking around at the various vegetation. She plucked a tree-sweet and savored it, closing her eyes and letting out a low hum. Chomper turned around and concluded that Ruby picked a particularly tasty sweet treat. He rolled his eyes and proceeded to track Spike's scent, knowing that he was getting closer to his location.

_"_I_ know_ there's nothing wrong with my sniffer," Chomper muttered.

"Remember when we got those hard-water sweets, Chomper? They were the best..."

Chomper lifted his head out of a bush to look at Ruby, who was smiling at the memory. Chomper, however, was still frustrated that he couldn't find Spike. The others had requested his company and they were waiting for him at the caves that bordered the Mysterious Beyond. They had made the mistake of going there often and Chomper remembered when he and Ducky got separated from the rest of the gang. They had been stuck with Thud, a green Fast Biter who had his tail held by rocks. Those rocks saved their lives, but it had caused Thud a lot of pain. Still, the comments Thud had made then had bothered Chomper. He had been called little, so far as to imply insignificance. Ironically, Thud had scoffed at the idea of a Flattooth and a Sharptooth being friends, something that made Chomper far more significant than any living Sharptooth, with the exception of Red Claw.

There were quite a few interesting stories of past Flatteeth, a prominent story being about the Lone Dinosaur. Chomper had met him before and, at one point, went to every length to avoid being killed. Luckily, Doc had changed his mind after Chomper attempted to save Dara, who was his "lady-friend". Chomper assumed that they were mates, just like his parents had once been.

Chomper, having been in the valley for over a year, possibly two, had hardly thought of his parents since he had came here. Initially, he had missed them (his mother more than his father), but they had slowly faded from his every day thoughts until they had only existed in his preconscious. Occasionally, he would think of them, but the thought would consist of only an image that would last a millisecond. It was not that he forgot them, it was that his memories were sleeping. Whether they were taking a short nap or a long rest after a long period of exhaustion, he didn't know.

Now his memories were focused on what Ruby had just mentioned.

"Yeah," he replied. "I thought I would enjoy them too, but I ended up barfing when we came back. I didn't do it in front of everyone else because, well, you know."

"I remember when you tried to eat leaves and you threw up. Oh, I remember," Ruby replied. "Why do you keep trying?"

_Because there might not be enough bugs for me to eat._

"Oh, I don't know," Chomper lied. "I just wanna fit in. Remember that Time of the Great Giving?"

Ruby rubbed Chomper's back in attempt to comfort him when he finally spotted Spike. Of course, Spike was eating various plants. Each time he approached an unfamiliar plant, he seemed to listen to it before deciding whether or not he should eat it. In regard to this, Spike didn't discriminate much.

Spike turned his head to see Chomper and Ruby approach him and gave a sheepish smile before he munched on a tree-sweet. Chomper playfully nudged his side and Spike grunted before eating some tree-stars. Ruby huffed.

"Spiiiiike! Everyone is waiting for you. That is, if they're still waiting."

"Cera probably isn't. She's not very patient," Chomper replied. "Go back to them, I'll meet you there."

"Okay, Chomper," Ruby said, waving goodbye and sprinting off.

Chomper turned to Spike's front and shouted his name. Spike seemed to pay attention, as Chomper guessed by his wider eyes and unmoving head. Chomper saw Spike sniffing something and finding a pinecone, kicking it around. Chomper recalled a time when he had taught Spike to rely primarily on his sense of smell rather than sight. He regarded the mission a success and, since then, he had wondered what else he could teach the Spiketail boy.

"Use your sniffer," Chomper said, just to make sure Spike had retained his knowledge.

Spike stared at him blankly.

"Sniffer," Chomper said, pointing to his own nose, and Spike went along, sniffing everything around him.

Chomper had done this in the past and deduced that Spike likely doesn't understand him. That previous lesson had only been a success because he had used a variety of hand (or claw) gestures to express his point. Spike's failure to understand language had made no sense to him; Chomper had learned the Flattooth language within a day and spoke fluently within the next twenty four hours. His parents' native tongue had been even less difficult. Within a few hours, he was fluent.

His current experience taught him that, while Sharpteeth can learn within days, even hours, Flatteeth needed much longer.

_Huh,_ he thought to himself. _And they say Sharpteeth can't even talk._

"I wonder if Spike can learn Sharptooth," he muttered to himself.

Back when he had lived on that island with his parents, his Flattooth friends had washed up on the shores. He had tried to greet them with the classic Sharptooth "Hello", but all he had succeeded in doing was scaring them off. It wasn't until later when he had reintroduced himself, talked about his mother and father, and seen the expression of dread on their faces when he talked about meeting them. Ducky had asked whether or not they had met them once before (Chomper knew that Ducky was using a euphemistic question to refer to the numerous near-death situations) and Spike had understood a little, making a perfect Sharptooth roar. With this recollection, Chomper realized that Spike may be more inclined towards Sharptooth, with the exception of diet.

* * *

"Spike!" Chomper called as they were walking to where the gang had been waiting.

Spike looked at him immediately. Chomper had tested Spike to see what he had understood, which was little more than names of individuals and different plants. He barely had any concept of action phrases, let alone abstract ideas that his friends understood so easily. Chomper couldn't help but wonder what accounted for his speech delay.

"Tree star," he said once Spike's attention faltered.

Again, Spike directed his attention immediately.

"Tree star," Chomper said, this time in his native tongue.

Spike, not understanding him, stepped back in fear. Chomper returned to speaking Flattooth to Spike, saying "tree-star" again and then immediately followed with the translation. After several trials, Spike finally decided to imitate Chomper's translation.

"Trah stir," Spike attempted in Sharptooth.

Chomper giggled. "Tree star."

"Trey stir."

Chomper face-palmed, apparently because his arms were unusually long enough for him to do that. Most Sharpteeth of his species could only reach the top of their snout at most. Spike's attempts were getting more accurate and strangely more humorous as they continued. After about eleven tries, Spike finally did it.

"Tree star."

"Good Spike," he congratulated in Flattooth.

They had both arrived where they had agreed to meet, but the gang wasn't there. He attributed that to Cera's impatience.

"They probably left without us," Chomper muttered to himself and Spike gave him a boost.

They had taken the path that had previously led them to the Mysterious Beyond, but they didn't actually leave the protected area of the Great Valley. Instead, they scanned the area, looking for glimpses of a brown wing, an excited pair of green hands, or the shadows of two large figures antagonizing each other and butting heads (in the literal sense). They saw nothing and rested in a cave. Chomper decided to teach Spike another word.

"Tree-sweet," Chomper first said in Flattooth, and then in Sharptooth.

"Trey-Sweat," Spike attempted to imitate.

Chomper shook his head and then spoke again in his own native tongue. "Tree-Sweet."

"True Sweat."

"Tree Sweet."

"Trey-oo Swut."

"Tree Sweet."

"Tree Swoo-yet."

Chomper stomped his left foot in frustration. "Tree Sweet."

"Tree Swee– _AKH!"_ Spike burped in the middle of his soft roar.

Chomper facepalmed when he picked up the scent of something that smelled similar to Ruby. He called her name, but heard nothing with the exception of his voice's echo, and two smaller versions of her were running around outside the safety of their little cave.

"I recognize them," Chomper said. "That's Skip and there's Jade and Sphene, but who's chasing–"

"Ahh!" Jade and Sphene both cried.

Just then, Skip led them to the safety of the little cave where Chomper and Spike hid. Skip was out of breath and Jade and Sphene were shivering with fear when they recognized Chomper.

"You two stay here," Skip said. "And I'm going to lead them– AHHH!"

Chomper saw Screech's jaws snap around Skip's neck and his teeth draw blood, causing Skip immense pain. Screech clenched his teeth tighter, puncturing the jugular vein, and Skip was dragged away. Jade and Sphene started to cry.

Chomper panicked. "Uhh, Jade, Sphene, it-it-it's okay, shh. Uhh, we should go this way, uh, yeah! This way!"

He scooped up Jade and Sphene and placed the siblings on Spike's back. Jade and Sphene immediately hopped off, as they had no idea who or what he was, let alone trust him. Spike looked at them with confusion.

"This is Spike. He's called that because he is a Spiketail," Chomper explained. "He can't talk very much. He's a good friend."

Chomper scooped them up again and they hung onto Spike. Chomper walked ahead of them and directed Spike where to go, using mostly hand gestures. Looking around, he mostly sought out level paths for Spike to take. Last thing he needed was for Jade and Sphene to fall after such a traumatic event.

"Is this the Great Valley?" Jade asked in a meek voice.

"Yup. All my friends are here. There's Littlefoot and Cera and Ducky and Petrie and, well, you already met Spike," he replied. "They're all different kinds. Littlefoot's a Long Neck, Cera's a Three Horn, Ducky's kind has different names. Some call her a Big Mouth, others a Duck Bill, others a Swimmer. Petrie is a Flyer. I don't know where they get 'Duck Bill' from."

"Is Ruby here?" Sphene asked in much the same manner that Jade did.

"Ruby," Chomper muttered just before he saw Ruby and Ducky come into view on the flat land and shouted her name. "Ruby!"

Ruby, still a good distance away, squinted her eyes and then widened them, revealing shock at what she saw. Immediately, she sprinted towards the group in excitement.

"Ruby!" the young siblings both yelled, sliding off of Spike's back.

Chomper watched them reunite, but didn't bother trying to remember the details of it. He only saw that Ruby was happy to see her younger sister and brother make it to the Great Valley. Ducky had greeted them as well, as she had accompanied them when they had made that trip to Hanging Rock some time ago. Jade and Sphene only seemed to have little memory of Ducky.

"How did you get here?" Ruby asked her siblings.

Sphene answered first. "A weird looking thing called Skip took us."

Ruby registered what Sphene felt. "Where is he now?"

Neither Jade nor Sphene answered, so Chomper came up. "Well, Screech was there and... erm–"

"Oh," Ruby sighed, understanding the implication and inadvertently revealing them to Ducky.

"Oh no, not Skip! Oh, no, no, no!"

Ducky sulked her head and stood beside Spike, who seemed to understand that she wanted to be taken home. Chomper, somehow oblivious to Ducky's emotions, focused on the trio of siblings near him. They had all taken a seat.

"What happened in the Mysterious Beyond?" Ruby asked.

Chomper had a feeling that Ruby was going to ask about the absence of her parents, as that had been his first thought when he saw Jade and Sphene. The question had only occupied his mind for a moment when he remembered them sending off Ruby alone with him. Jade and Sphene's appearance seemed a little odd, but not entirely out of the ordinary.

Sphene spoke first. "We saw a dead Sharptooth. One like him."

"It had green scales and one red eye that had little slugs and stuff on it," Jade added.

Sphene added more. "It seemed like it starved."

Chomper thought about who the Sharptooth could be. From what he assumed, this creature had to be pretty bad at hunting. He thought about the appearance and concluded that this creature must have resembled his mother. His mind was going to explore that possibility more when some knee-jerk emotional response took hold of him. Chomper had no idea what it was, but he felt as if he couldn't hear any more about this dead Sharptooth anymore, lest it bring about a horrible realization. He saw Littlefoot, Cera and Petrie approach the gang and scurried off, not wanting to be seen crying.

* * *

**To VONDON WILES: Who _are_ you?**

**So, how was that so far? So which of you did read the prequel (sees raised hands)? Which of you didn't? (Sees some raised hands?) **


	3. Part 1: Chapter 2

Chapter 2

"Oh, my! Who are these two new youngsters?" asked Grandma Longneck, lowering her head to see Ruby's siblings.

"This is Jade. The other one is Sphene," Littlefoot introduced the two. "They're Ruby's brother and sister."

Jade and Sphene hid behind Ruby, as they had not been introduced to too many Long Necks. Grandma Longneck smiled at the young children and then raised her head to meet that of her mate's. Grandpa Longneck observed the shy children's behavior and his mouth widened into a grin.

"They're shy little ones, aren't they?" he asked.

"Well, imagine, being that young and traveling in the Mysterious Beyond."

Grandpa Longneck nudged her gently. "We've all been in the Mysterious Beyond before coming here."

"That's true."

Chomper was hiding behind a tree, listening to their dialogue before growing bored. Although he was interested in Jade and Sphene, he was far more invested in teaching Spike his native language. He turned around and left, figuring out where Spike was thanks to his "sniffer". The sound of their voices grew quieter and louder became the munching of leaves that had been so closely associated with a creature like Spike. Chomper made it to a clearing in a dense patch of forest and found Spike – sure enough – eating a pile of tree-stars.

"Tree star," Spike managed to say in perfect Sharptooth.

Chomper had spent most of that day teaching Spike the names of different things in Sharptooth language. First, it was the names of different foods: tree-stars, tree sweets, green food, sweet bubbles, hard-water sweets, and different types of flowers. Chomper had only become familiar with them after he had come to the Great Valley. As he taught Spike the different ways to say it in Sharptooth language, he thought of the time he spent with his friends back on that island.

"I like tall grass with leaves on the end!"

"I like flowers, especially yellow ones!"

"Me like berries, lots and lots of berries!"

"Is there any chance you got tree-stars?"

He had shuffled awkwardly as his friends cheered at the prospect of tree-stars. Confused, he had admitted that he didn't really know of any of those things were. Luckily, his friends had enjoyed the food he had gotten for them.

"Berry," Spike struggled to say in Sharptooth.

Chomper decided to speak to Spike in only Sharptooth. He chose not to teach him in front of others, as people would grow suspicious (as if he needed more of that!). There was already tension due to his species, the issue mainly stemming from his natural diet, but he had established himself as different.

_No,_ he thought. _I established myself as _nice. _Benevolent._

"Now, Spike," he said with a low grunt. "Say 'tree-star' again."

"Tree star."

"Now say... um, hard-water sweet!"

Spike swallowed some food he had in his mouth and tried to follow Chomper's command.

"Had-rather sweat."

"No! Hard-water sweet!"

"Hard-rather swut."

Chomper rolled his eyes and grunted in frustration. In front of his friends, he would express it with Flattooth words and try to keep himself calm. If he didn't, he would inadvertently go back to the classic Sharptooth roar, intimidating his friends, and they would think twice about him living among what would normally be his prey. As a result, Chomper had become very careful about what he expressed.

Now that he had let out the grunt of a predator, Spike was shaking with fear, and Chomper realized his mistake as he saw Spike start to flee.

* * *

"Me want tree-star," Spike finally articulated in Sharptooth.

Chomper smiled, his heart nearly bouncing around as he realized his success. In a relatively short time, Spike had gone from only knowing names of individuals and food to being able to have a basic understanding of abstract concepts and being able to express them in the much more complex language of the predators. He thought about a time, a while ago, when he tried to convince other Sharpteeth to be "nice". His largest mistake was that he attempted to communicate with them in Flattooth and, now thinking about the situation, deduced that the language barrier contributed to the failure to coexist.

_Well, aside from natural diet_, he thought.

He remembered that most Sharpteeth never thought of Flatteeth as individuals. To them, they were objects to be used to their own advantage. His father had taught him that.

Chomper also learned that Flatteeth didn't think Sharpteeth could talk, let alone have complex thoughts and feelings. He thought of a time when, back on the island, Littlefoot was surprised that his mother had ever shown her carnivorous son affection.

"Wow," he had said, amazed. "She really loves you."

He wondered if the ability for both Flatteeth and Sharpteeth to communicate with one another could clear up these misconceptions about one another.

Spike looked at Chomper with hope, wanting to receive his praise and reward. Chomper grabbed a fresh, green tree star from the ground and fed it to Spike.

"Good job, Spike!"

Spike smiled and lied down, stretching out his limbs. Chomper stepped to his side and was about to whisper something in his ear when he heard the leaves shake from the bushes and turned around.

"There you guys are!" Cera said irritably. "You two have been hiding from us quite a bit lately."

"Spike was, uh... sleeping," Chomper replied.

Cera rolled his eyes and butted her horn into Spike's side, making him topple over. He reacted with surprise and grunted when he fell on his back. Chomper laughed at the scene, but made sure that his laugh sounded like a Flattooth's. Last thing he needed to do was to scare Spike away.

"What are we playing today?" Chomper asked.

"Ducky wants to go to the Sheltering Grass and play Sharptooth Attack," Cera replied. "Normally, Ruby would want to play, but she's taking care of Jade and Sphene. They're kinda annoying, being so little and clingy. Agh! Come on, Spike!"

Spike shook his head and chose to rest near some tree-sweets. He appeared to be listening to them and Chomper decided to leave with Cera. It wasn't a long walk to where the rest of the gang was. He was hoping they wouldn't have to play Sharptooth Attack.

The last time they played, he was given the role of Sharptooth, which at first, he didn't mind. Since it was only role play, he didn't think anyone would get hurt, as they had done similar role play when they tried to expose Rhett as a liar. They had gone to the Sheltering Grass and Chomper decided to perch himself atop something so he could overlook the place.

He had thought it was innocent playing when he had leaped off where he kept himself hidden. Chomper had spied a little tail sticking out from the grass and lunged for it, his jaws open to make a pretend roar that the others had done so many times before. Unfortunately, an actual, predatory roar came out, if not a little quietly, but it was enough to unnerve his friends.

Ducky had sped away from him and taken shelter behind Littlefoot, who had looked at Chomper skeptically. Chomper shuffled his legs awkwardly and Littlefoot lowered his head a bit, an eyebrow raised.

"Hi, Littlefoot," he muttered, as if he was guilty of something.

"What's wrong, Ducky?" he asked the little green dinosaur.

"For a minute, I thought he, uh..."

Littlefoot soothed Ducky. "I'm sure he didn't want to hurt you. He's nice, remember?"

Ducky had forgiven Chomper, but Chomper still felt guilty. Though he didn't mention this to anyone, the feeling of leaping from above and letting out a roar felt oddly satisfying. For a long time, he justified this by saying it made him feel like he wasn't little. Now that he and Cera were approaching Littlefoot, Petrie and Ducky, he wasn't sure he could lie to himself. He really hoped Ducky changed his mind about playing Sharptooth Attack.

* * *

"Where friends?" Spike struggled in Sharptooth.

"They are over there," Chomper replied, pointing to the gang, who were jumping around in leaves that Grandpa Longneck had retrieved for them. "Say their names."

"Small-Foot."

Chomper face-palmed. "_Little_-Foot."

"Little-Foot, Sarr-_ah_."

"_Cera_, her name is Cera."

"Little-foot, Cera, Pet-ree."

Chomper huffed in frustration, careful not to let out a grunt that would frighten a Flattooth. Spike thought long and hard before he tried again.

"Little-foot, Cera, Petrie, Duke-eye..."

"_Ducky!_" Chomper said, annoyed. "Ducky! How do you get _Duke-eye_?"

Spike sighed, lowering his head. He seemed ready to give up this Sharptooth business.

"Speaking hard," he murmured with a low growl. "Names easier in Flattooth."

Chomper remembered why Flatteeth and Sharpteeth chose different names. He remembered the names of his parents and compared them to the names of his Flattooth friends. The names of the Flatteeth seemed more... innocent. Childlike.

No wonder direct translations into Sharptooth were so difficult.

"Sharpteeth have different names," Chomper explained to Spike. "We also have different words for different things."

Spike's head rose with interest. "Like what?"

"Sharpteeth call Flatteeth 'herbivores' sometimes. There is no Flattooth word for that. We also call Sharpteeth 'carnivores'. My mother could translate my name into Sharptooth, but she had a different name for me."

Chomper waited until he could be sure that Spike understood him. He seemed to get the general message and Chomper sighed, happy only to have to explain things once.

"What your Sharptooth name?" Spike asked.

Chomper smiled. "Zander."

Spike cocked his head. "Should I have Sharptooth name? Can I?"

"Sure!" Chomper said excitedly, although he didn't know why.

He thought about the possibilities of Spike being able to communicate with the Sharpteeth of the Mysterious Beyond. Although it wouldn't be wise to send Spike out as a child, it would be a good idea for him when he is full-grown. By then, he would have good defensive armor on his back and deadly spikes on his tail. That, and the potential increase in intelligence due to being bilingual, he would be a force to be reckoned with.

Chomper thought of a Sharptooth name for the innocent, gluttonous creature eagerly waiting in front of him.

"Hmm, your Sharptooth name is Oraekor," Chomper replied, finding it very suiting and was rewarded with a smile from the Spiketail boy.

* * *

"Now let's work on your Flattooth."

Chomper decided to translate words for things Spike didn't previously know about from Sharptooth to Flattooth. First, he would try action words, such as "run", "eat", and "sleep". Spike would struggle a bit, as he had become more accustomed to Sharptooth, but he would eventually catch on.

"Oraekor sleep now," Spike would say in a mixture of languages, making Chomper laugh.

As Spike learned more of both tongues, he became more comfortable with Chomper's slips of the tongue. He could actually laugh, express frustration, and sigh in his own tongue rather than censor himself. Since his experiment with Spike was becoming a success, he thought that maybe he could teach Littlefoot next. Littlefoot was the first Flattooth to consider the idea of coexistence, so his idea had to work.

Over a few weeks, he would spend time teaching Spike (or Oraekor) both languages. Sometimes, though, he would need a break. Chomper spent time with Jade and Sphene, who were adjusting relatively well to the Great Valley. Jade in particular charmed the adults, especially Ducky's mother, with her cute antics. Sphene would join in, if only to accompany his sister, and they would host little shows for the adults. Even Topps, Cera's stoic father, was swooned by them.

Chomper could see baby Tricia, Cera's half-sister, joining in on Jade and Sphene's game.

Meanwhile, Spike attempted to communicate to Ducky.

"Hi, Ducky," Spike said.

"Spike, you talked!" Ducky said cheerfully, unaware of the show that the little Fast Runners were putting on.

"Yeah, I _grr_ a _grrr_ bit. I _grr_ go for _rawr grrr_."

Now, to a Sharptooth, that would have sounded like, "_Khhrkh, khckhck_ speak _khkh_ little _rrrkh_. _Khrkhr_ could _rkhrr khh_ some berries."

"Spike!" Ducky shouted, rather alarmed. "You're turning into a Sharptooth!"

Chomper, highly amused by the situation, stepped in to explain everything to Ducky. First, he comforted her by patting her back softly, careful not to knock her over.

"I wanted to teach Spike how to talk, so I taught him a bit of my language. It helped him learn your language, but he keeps mixing up the two."

Ducky calmed down and let out a childish chuckle before approaching her foster brother. "So you're learning to talk. Eh he he! Maybe the others will help you learn our language!"

Chomper smiled at Ducky's kindness, but inside, he feared for Spike. How would the gang react to his predatory roars?

* * *

Chomper noticed that Jade and Sphene haven't been eating so much. Ruby had noticed it too and when she fetched their favorite food available, Jade and Sphene refused, saying they were tired.

Ruby watched Chomper leave to find Littlefoot. Meanwhile, she observed Jade and Sphene shifting in their sleep, murmuring unintelligibly. She rubbed their backs in attempt to soothe them when she heard Jade crying. She found it odd, as Jade and Sphene weren't at all prone to bad sleep stories.

"Momma," she mumbled sadly. "Momma, Daddy, no..."

"What happened?" Ruby asked, hoping to get some answers.

"Fast Biter, get away," Sphene murmured with fear. "Momma, Daddy, run."

They both cried heavily in their sleep and Ruby realized the worst. She, too, could no longer eat.

* * *

**Hey, readers! What do you think will happen? Let's hear suggestions as to what minor characters YOU want to appear in this fanfic. Ciao!**


	4. Part 1: Chapter 3

Chapter 3

"Ruby!" Littlefoot called. "Ruby? Where are you?"

He had been searching around the caves for hours, but he hadn't had any luck. He would have sought out Chomper to find her, but he was busy teaching Spike his own language, which Littlefoot knew would take a lot of work. Littlefoot hadn't notified the rest of the gang, as they would have been too worried for them to do anything productive and they would probably end up in another run-in with Red Claw. They had had plenty of those.

Jade and Sphene had been playing with Ducky's numerous siblings and it didn't make sense for Ruby not to be watching over them. Though she knew that they would be safe in the company of the adults, it wasn't like her to not be a bit protective. It was then when he knew something was up.

Finally, he had found one cave where he saw Ruby in a half-sleep state. She was breathing slowly and Littlefoot could see that she had gotten thin. He stepped closer to see that she had been crying.

"Ruby?"

She cowered away from him and he stood still, confused.

"Ruby, what's wrong?" Littlefoot looked around the cave. "I'll be right back, okay?"

Ruby nodded apathetically.

The little Long Neck left the cave she hid in and carefully treaded down the hill to get some green food for her. He picked a few tree stars and placed some tree sweets in the middle before gripping onto the corners of the leaves with his mouth. Carefully not to let the fashioned sack rip or drop, he climbed carefully up to the cave. His lips grew tired of gripping onto the leaves and when he made it to Ruby, he let the food fall right in front of her.

"Here's some food," he said hopefully.

Ruby turned away, breathing deeply. He watched a tear trail down from the corner of her eye to that of her beak and sat down. Littlefoot cocked his head to the side to face her.

"Ruby," he said quietly. "If something is wrong, you can tell me."

"Leave me alone."

"Please, Ruby?"

She got up and wiped her tears, kicking a tree sweet out of the cave and Littlefoot watched it trail down the hill. He turned to Ruby again and she turned her head to the right before she faced him again.

"My parents are dead," Ruby sobbed. "I can't do anything about it. They're dead!"

Littlefoot understood everything.

"Everyone here all has their families," she whimpered. "And my parents were killed by a Fast Biter."

He sighed. "My mother is dead too."

Ruby looked back and stopped. "Huh?"

"My mother died before our friends and I made it to the Great Valley. Chomper wasn't even alive yet."

Meanwhile, Chomper, who had been using his "sniffer" to locate Ruby, was listening in on the conversation. He had never thought or questioned Littlefoot's mother's absence, but now that Littlefoot had confirmed that she was dead, he wasn't sure what to think. Did she die by illness? Predation? Starvation? He couldn't tell, but he automatically assumed that she died outside the Great Valley. It wouldn't have made sense for Littlefoot's grandparents to outlive her otherwise.

"Littlefoot?" he asked softly.

Both he and Ruby were surprised by the little carnivore's presence. Chomper cautiously stepped forward, hoping not to frighten them. When he saw them calm down, he walked toward them with a faster, more casual pace.

"I, uhh, I heard your conversation," Chomper admitted.

"Oh," Littlefoot sighed.

"Your parents," he started. "How did they..."

Littlefoot and Ruby sat down, inviting him into their circle. Chomper looked curiously at the both of them and wondered just how little he actually knew about his friends' pasts. All he knew was their time in the Great Valley, but he had been absent for a large portion of that too. He thought it strange that he had once dearly missed those whom he barely knew, yet he trusted with his life on his first day alive.

"Fast Biter," Ruby spat.

"And you, Littlefoot?"

He barely lifted his head. "A Sharptooth killed her."

Chomper, feeling strangely uncomfortable, cocked his head. "What kind?"

"Same kind you are," Littlefoot said, careful not to show any signs of bitterness.

Chomper wondered if this Sharptooth was still alive, ready to stalk and kill them. If so, he could be wandering just outside the Great Valley. Now what Sharptooth is doing that...

"Was it Red Claw?"

"Oh no," Littlefoot replied. "My friends and I killed him a long time ago. It was before we found this place."

Chomper tried to hide his shock. What if one day, for some reason, he just snapped and became as vicious as those of his species? He would probably be an adult by the time and the gang was older than him. If they managed to kill a Sharptooth as children, it would no doubt be very easy for them to do so when they're grown up. He dismissed all of it, as he had promised himself that he wouldn't become like the monsters the residents of the Great Valley described Sharpteeth to be. Still, he couldn't help but worry a little bit.

Ruby left the cave, no longer wanting to be bothered. Chomper and Littlefoot were alone. Both wondered how long it would be before their friends came looking for them.

"Littlefoot?"

"Hmm?"

"Why didn't you kill me when I first hatched?" he asked. "I'm a Sharptooth, after all."

Littlefoot got up and nuzzled him affectionately as if it was _he_ who had laid his egg. Chomper was always confused as to why Littlefoot felt this bond.

"You were a baby, Chomper. You hadn't done anything wrong."

Chomper let the issue slide and the duo went to seek out their friends, who would no doubt want an explanation for their absence.

* * *

"Rawr rawr," Chomper jokingly roared behind Cera, who was munching on yellow flowers.

"Chomper!"

"What?" he asked. "I was only joking. You guys play Sharptooth Attack all the time."

"I know," Cera replied. "But we plan that game. Surprise attacks, even as jokes, aren't very funny."

Chomper looked down and sighed. He held his hands (well, his claws) together and Cera stopped eating, seeing that he felt guilty.

"We could play Sharptooth Attack if you want," Cera said. "I could go get the others right now."

"No, it's okay. I just wanted to ask a question."

"What it is?"

Chomper remembered what Littlefoot had told him not so long ago. It disturbed him and went against everything he understood. Still, he needed confirmation.

"Before you came to the Great Valley," he stammered. "Did you guys really kill a Sharptooth? Littlefoot told me you did."

"Well, yeah, we had to. He was mean and vicious! He didn't have feelings! He just tried to kill and eat us while we were starving!"

"He was probably starving too," Chomper muttered.

Just then, Chomper saw a large shadow form around him and looked up to see Topps staring down at the two. His expression looked more intimidating than usual. How long had he been there?

"Of course you would sympathize with a Sharptooth!"

"Daddy, he was just..."

"Cera!" Topps rebuffed her. "That's quite enough!"

Before anything else happened, Chomper decided to walk away and spend some time alone.


	5. Part 1: Chapter 4

Chapter 4

"Can I ask you a question?"

Grandma and Grandpa Longneck stopped what they were doing and looked at Chomper. Grandpa Longneck swallowed some food he found in the nearby pond and his wife lowered her head to face Chomper. He could feel her breath, which reeked of pond food.

"Why do you let me live here?" he asked. "I mean, no one here exactly _likes _Sharpteeth."

"You haven't hurt anyone," she explained. "You've always been kind."

Grandpa Longneck elaborated on his wife's point. "You're smart and you feel compassion. Sharpteeth in the Mysterious Beyond aren't like that. They mindlessly kill."

Grandma Longneck nudged her mate's shoulder and sighed. "We lost our daughter to one of them."

"Littlefoot's Mother?" Chomper asked.

They both nodded solemnly. Chomper remembered both Littlefoot and Cera claiming that the murderous Sharptooth was killed right outside the Great Valley. He couldn't help but wonder where his corpse was. He heard that this Sharptooth was unusually big and strong. Chomper had looked at his own reflection in the water several times, wondering how large he would grow up to be.

He had lost a few teeth and newer, sharper ones were growing in their place. Chomper would feel the tips of those new teeth and beam with pride about growing older. Though he wouldn't need them any time soon, he still felt that those new teeth were important milestones. He just hoped that his new mouth wouldn't intimidate anyone.

He thought it inappropriate to defend the reputation of Sharpteeth to Grandma and Grandpa Longneck, so he decided to go elsewhere.

Chomper found Petrie's mother collecting sticks to repair her nest, as the wind from the previous night dismantled it a bit. Petrie wasn't present, but all of his siblings were. He didn't know any of their names.

"Can I ask you a question?"

Petrie's mother stopped while her children were gathering sticks sloppily. She scratched her blue wings.

"Sure, you can, Chomper."

"What do you guys mean when you say that I'm a _nice_ Sharptooth?"

"You aren't like those vicious Sharpteeth in the Mysterious Beyond!" she replied almost immediately. "They kill and they tear up families!"

Chomper winced at that last statement. He remembered when his father had tried to teach him how to ambush a family of corythosauruses. His father ate the adult male and his mother killed the adult female, but not before he warned them in their own language that they were going to be killed. He managed to save the little girl, who had been named Thosa. His father had been unimaginably angry at him for ruining the ambush. He wasn't able to eat his parents' prey that night.

Now that he remembered that awful time, he couldn't help but wonder how many families his parents had split apart. He remembered what his mother had told him about have a code of morals when it came to hunting, but he had dropped hunting altogether, as no amount of restrictions could alleviate the pain herbivores felt when their relatives were torn to pieces.

Chomper had let the issue drop when he ran into Topps, who was watching over Tricia from a distance. Tricia was goofing off with her mother, Tria, near the mud baths. When Chomper arrived, Topps groaned, making him feel very uncomfortable.

"I hear you keep asking others what makes a 'Nice Sharptooth'," Topps scoffed. "I can't help but wonder when you're going to snap."

It took a bit of time for Chomper to realize that was a joke.

"I'm going to go find Littlefoot."

* * *

"Haven't we already gone through that path?" Cera asked.

Ruby looked another way and saw an unfamiliar path, cocking her head. Chomper saw that she had gained a little weight since their chat in the cave. Ruby seemed to feel better since then and she had been interacting with the group more. For the past few weeks, she had been walking over Jade and Sphene, but now she had joined them again, trusting her siblings to Ducky's mother.

"There's a path I haven't seen before," Ruby said.

The group all looked at it, more of them with curiosity. However, Spike was skeptical.

"I don't want to go," Spike grumbled. "I'll go back."

Cera scoffed. "Ha! Scaredy egg!"

Spike ignored her and trailed down, rewarding himself with vegetation when he completed the trip. Littlefoot, Petrie and Ducky were ambivalent about his absence, but Cera was somewhat glad that he decided not to come. Chomper somewhat wished that Spike would come, as he did not want to be the only one solving disputes with Sharpteeth. If they had encountered some, Spike's bilingualism would prove that leaf-eaters were just as intelligent as Sharpteeth. Now that he thought about it, he wondered if Sharpteeth were right about Flatteeth not being as smart. If they were of equal intelligence, wouldn't Sharpteeth's only way of survival be through brute strength? Chomper dismissed that notion, as he had seen herbivores fight their predators rather skillfully. Sharpteeth had to be smarter if they wanted to eat.

He thought of what Grandpa Longneck had said about Sharpteeth mindlessly killing. Chomper wished he could have corrected him on that point, but there was too much emotional baggage for both the Long Neck and himself. More often than not, Chomper worried that his own struggle to see Sharpteeth the way most Flatteeth did would lead to betraying his friends. He didn't want to risk bringing this up for fear of banishment.

_Or worse, _he thought to himself. _Remember when Ali and Rhett's herd tried to kill you?_

_That's because Old One didn't think I could talk. She thought I was born to be a ruthless murderer._

_It's not murder, Chomper. It's predation. It's survival._

_I survive without hurting my friends._

_For now, you do. Just wait until you drool at the sight of Littlefoot's vulnerable neck._

_STOP IT! STOP IT NOW!_

_You were meant to hunt. Why do you think you like being high up?_

_Please stop..._

_Remember when you were stuck with Ducky on that ledge with Thud? He laughed when you said that she was your friend. He thought you wanted that piece of meat for yourself._

_I DIDN'T! SHE'S MY FRIEND!_

_For now._

_STOP IT! STOP IT!_

"STOP IT!" he unintentionally shouted.

Luckily, his friends thought that his outburst was the result of the current argument between Littlefoot and Cera. Cera had been belittling Spike for his gluttony and laziness, Littlefoot had been defending Spike on the account of his underestimated intelligence, and Ruby was trying to intervene, to no avail. At first, she successfully reminded them that Spike could do whatever he wanted and perhaps that he hadn't really enjoyed these "adventures" after all. Cera had scoffed and said that it was a good thing, but Littlefoot had countered that he was just sick of Cera's degradation. Chomper's outburst occurred right in the middle of the argument, which saved him from explaining what was really going on in his head.

"See?" Littlefoot taunted Cera. "First you scare away Spike, now you did it to Chomper!"

"Oh sure, blame it on me!"

"Why else would he just scream like that?"

Everyone's eyes were on Chomper, who, at this point, just wanted to be alone. He thought of taking a short stroll in the Mysterious Beyond. He hoped that his group of friends wouldn't go searching for him. He would be at an increased risk of predation if he were seen with a bunch of herbivores.

Ducky started to feel uncomfortable and Petrie revealed that he shared the sentiment. They slowly walked over to Chomper, careful not to let the other three see them leave. This ruined Chomper's plan to leave discreetly.

"They argue too much," Ducky sighed. "Yep, yep, yep."

"Me no like to see them fight," Petrie agreed.

"Maybe you guys should go find Spike," Chomper suggested. "See how he's feeling."

"Me think that good plan," Petrie nodded, motioning Ducky to Spike's direction.

The two started on that path when Chomper looked back, seeing that Littlefoot and Cera hadn't noticed their absence. Ruby was busy trying to get them to make peace when Ducky looked back.

"Aren't you coming with us?" Ducky asked. "Huh, _huh_?"

"No," Chomper half-lied. "I'm going to make sure Littlefoot and Cera don't butt their heads to the bone."

Ducky believed the lie and followed Petrie, who was spinning circles in the air. Chomper watched them find Spike and comfort him. The stegosaurus seemed to enjoy their company and Chomper sighed, wanting to be alone. If he snapped and hurt anyone, Ducky would no doubt be the first victim. The others can defend themselves more easily than she can. Ruby can run fast, Petrie can fly, Cera can kill him with her horn and Littlefoot had a bit of strength to him, though not to the degree that Cera did. Littlefoot was remarkably clever for a Flattooth and his years would give him an advantage over Chomper. As he turned away from Ducky, he felt guilty for even considering who was the weakest of their group. He then remembered that Ducky could swim, but that would only work if she were near a body of water.

_I guess I have to stay near ponds._

Chomper decided to leave what was left of the group and took a path that would lead to the Mysterious Beyond. He recalled the time of the Great Giving, when he had left and tried to teach other Sharpteeth to be nice. They had only considered him prey because he spoke like prey. If he kept his mouth shut, he could get along on his own just fine.

He found an opening, which he assumed the adult Flatteeth used to get in, and exited out that way. Chomper was a little annoyed by the drift that came through the path. He was surprised that no predator had found this path yet.

_Except you, Chomper. You have this food to yourself._

_They are not food!_

Chomper was starting to hate his ability to engage in interior monologue.

He managed to escape into the Mysterious Beyond and saw that the place seemed empty. Chomper thought it suspicious, but he didn't want to jinx anything, so he didn't make any assumptions. He simply paced near the Great Valley perimeter, muttering things to himself in Sharptooth. Ever since he had taught Spike the language, it became natural to him again. If Chomper's father was still around when he got accustomed to the Flatteeth language, the older T-Rex would throw a fit. _Good thing they aren't here,_ he thought, not admitting to himself that he still missed them.

Chomper let thoughts of his parents disappear when he thought he heard faint footsteps behind him. He breathed in, picking up the scent of a familiar Long Neck when he heard Littlefoot's voice calling out to him.

"Chomper! What are you doing!" he called, panting. "Why would you go into the Mysterious Beyond alone?"

"I could never be alone in the Great Valley," he muttered.

"That doesn't mean you go where it's not safe!" Littlefoot replied. "Something could get you."

"You're just as vulnerable," Chomper replied.

Littlefoot huffed. "Let's just get back to the Great Valley before something eats us both."

Just then, they heard the familiar roar of Screech. Littlefoot didn't even bother looking at the blue Fast Biter before telling Chomper to run for his life. Chomper looked back to notice that Thud didn't accompany him. He found it odd and wondered where Red Claw would appear. Soon enough, Littlefoot and Chomper heard Red Claw's infamous roar and sped up, getting to the entrance that Chomper had found and inadvertently leading Red Claw into the Great Valley.

Unfortunately, they didn't notice this until after Red Claw was in direct view of the adults, albeit at a distance. Their friends were all scattered, thanks to today's argument, so none of them could warn the others of Red Claw's presence. This left Littlefoot and Chomper alone to face the menacing creature until the adults would come by.

"I'll get the both of you!" Chomper heard Red Claw roar behind them.

Screech muttered something similar, but Chomper didn't bother listening, as he was busy trying to find someplace to hide. Littlefoot helped a little bit in this as well, but when he pointed out a location, he didn't notice Chomper trip over a root of a tree. Red Claw managed to dislodge the tree itself, moving Chomper a few feet, and Red Claw growled in satisfaction. Chomper froze.

"I'm gonna die," he muttered to himself, unable to move his muscles.

Just then, he heard the stampede of the adults coming their way. Chomper was greatful, not to mention he could move his limbs again, and he fled to Littlefoot's hiding spot. They both watched as the adults bravely fought Red Claw, not even noticing Screech's absence.

Grandpa Longneck was the first to make an offensive move. He attempted to smack Red Claw with his tail, but Red Claw managed to dodge it before lunging at Grandpa Longneck. The aged Flattooth's years had caught up to him, as he was not able to quickly respond to Red Claw. The fearsome T-Rex opened his jaws and clamped onto the neck of the old leader. Both Grandma Longneck and Topps attempted to get Red Claw off of Grandpa Longneck. For the most part, they succeeded, as Red Claw wasn't willing to sustain any injuries, but they hadn't been able to save Grandpa Longneck. The old guy's throat was torn apart and he was bleeding to death. Chomper looked at Littlefoot, who had absolutely no way of controlling his tears, and peered at the rest of his friends, who were all shocked at what had taken place.

* * *

"It was all Chomper's fault!" Topps insisted later that evening.

Chomper was standing at the center of the circle the adults had made. None of the children were allowed to take part in the meeting and Grandma Longneck was too heartbroken to do anything. She had been laying by the corpse of her mate since the attack earlier that day. Littlefoot, too, was particularly shaken by today's events. Chomper felt responsible, as he had chosen to walk into the Mysterious Beyond alone.

Chomper looked around and didn't see his friends try to infiltrate the meeting. He only saw a few children there: Hyp, Nod and Mutt. Technically, they weren't children, they were adolescents. He zeroed in on them and saw that Hyp was very close to reaching adulthood. Chomper had overheard Hyp's conversations with his friends on a few occasions, which now revolved around Hyp's desire for a mate.

"I just want a girl, you know, for a little fun," Hyp had confided to his friends.

"Why?" Mutt had asked.

"I think you know why! In any case, I wouldn't explain it to you. You wouldn't know how to have that sort of 'fun', anyway."

"Oh, and you do?" Nod had replied.

Hyp had let out the obnoxious laugh he had used whenever he used to bully Littlefoot and his friends. "Oh, believe me, I saw your parents doing it, it doesn't seem very hard."

Chomper hadn't witnessed the fight that went on between Hyp and Nod. His mind jumped back to reality when he heard Hyp's father speak up. Chomper was shivering from the cold.

"What are we going to do about it, Topps?" Hyp's father asked.

"Banishment!" Topps announced.

_This is happening sooner than I thought._

"But he's only a child," Ducky's mother protested. "You can't just abandon him to those Sharpteeth!"

Topps scoffed grimly. "You stupid Duckbill! He _is_ a Sharptooth. He would have to leave eventually! At some point, he'll grow so big that he can't live off of little bugs anymore. You know what happens when _that_ time comes, don't you?"

The adults started to murmur and Chomper knew that this was what they feared all along. Every time a mother told her children not to play with him, every time someone made a reference to a "vicious sharptooth", and every time he perceived a threat against his own life, he was reminded that he would eventually have to leave. Chomper didn't think it would be so soon.

"Besides," Topps continued. "It was made obvious by today's events that Red Claw was after _Chomper_ all along!"

The adults murmured some more before Topps requested a vote. Nearly all were in favor of his banishment. Chomper gulped, knowing that he wouldn't even get a chance to say goodbye to his friends. When he had spent a good portion of his life without them, he missed them greatly. At one point, that feeling had become unbearable.

"So that settles it, Chomper," Topps said. "You are to leave the Great Valley permanently!"

That night, Topps made sure Chomper left. He followed the little T-Rex to the edge of the Great Valley, making sure that no child approached him for any goodbyes. Chomper knew that his friends would inquire about his absence and travel to the Mysterious Beyond in order to find him. He hoped that the adults would keep a tight watch over them to make sure they wouldn't. Chomper couldn't come back.

Chomper kept looking around. From a distance, he could see the mud baths and the waterfall. On the opposite side, he saw Grandma Longneck sleeping beside the corpse of her mate. Chomper stopped to see the elderly Long Neck lift her head to weep.

"See what you caused?" Topps asked stoically.

Chomper kept walking to the edge of the haven that he had called home for quite some time. Even in the night, Topps' shadow intimidated him, despite him being a predator. He ran his tongue over the tips of his adult teeth, accidentally puncturing it. A little bit of blood ran through his mouth and, though he wouldn't admit this to anyone, it didn't taste so bad. Chomper's thoughts were interrupted by a grunt from the older Triceratops.

"Go now," said Topps. "I'll be watching to make sure you don't sneak back in."

"Tell my friends I said goodbye," Chomper replied.

Topps snorted and Chomper climbed up the path, unsure of what to expect. He had never really traveled in the Mysterious Beyond alone, with the exception of this morning's mistake. Chomper had had either his parents or Ruby. He started to weep for all the damage he had caused. The purple boy realized that this won't be the last time he'll split a family apart.

He made it outside and heard the shuffling of rocks, realizing that Topps had sealed the opening shut. Chomper walked toward the canyon ahead of him, feeling more vulnerable and alone than ever. The breeze didn't help either.

Just then, he heard shuffling footsteps and turned around frantically, seeing no one. His heart raced and he kept moving his head in attempt to see what was around him when Thud appeared before him. He attempted to flee, but Thud stopped him right away.

"Don't be afraid, little biter," he said. "I'm not here to hurt you. However, Duncan and Seasnan are."

"Who and who?" Chomper asked. "And who are _you_?"

"My name is Thorgeir," said Thud. "Seasnan is the blue one and Duncan is the T-Rex with the scar. They tried to kill you on multiple occasions."

"You did, too," Chomper recalled.

Thorgeir looked around before directing Chomper to a nearby cave. Once Chomper was in, he realized that even Thorgeir was too large to fit. He wondered why Thorgeir wasn't trying to hurt him.

"I spared you that day, remember?" Thorgeir asked. "After you removed the rocks on my tail, when we were stuck on the ledge with that green herbivore."

_Ducky._

"That's when I started to defect more and more. Let's just say Duncan is not pleased," he said, looking around frantically. "If you want to live through tonight, I suggest you stay in here. I'll pretend not to know of your whereabouts."

Chomper stayed in that cave the entire night, hearing Seasnan and Thorgeir argue relentlessly. Seasnan kept talking about how being allied with Duncan was the best thing that happened to them, while Thorgeir reminded him that Duncan did not genuinely care for them. The argument only stopped when Duncan arrived, which caused Thorgeir to drop the subject. Chomper had never thought that a rift would occur in that team of predators. After the three had left, Chomper had a difficult time sleeping, and in the morning, he stepped out of the cave and took one last look at the Great Valley.

"I'll miss my friends," he muttered to himself. "Cera, Ducky, Petrie, Ruby, Spike. Jade and Sphene, though I've only known them for a few months. Littlefoot too. He gave me my name."

_Your Flattooth name. Your mother gave you something different._

"Zander," he said to himself. "I'm not Chomper anymore. I'm Zander," he sighed and walked away from the Great Valley.


	6. Part 2: Chapter 1

**Part 2: Banishment**

Chapter 1

For quite a few years in the Mysterious Beyond, Zander survived on worms, insects and even eggs. He didn't think he would have to resort to eating the last one, as he had promised himself a long time ago that he wouldn't take a life of an herbivore (or a carnivore). Once, though, he couldn't find insects or worms of any kind and came across a batch of eggs, not knowing whose they were. His hunger became too much and he broke through the brittle shell, watching the yoke spill out. He ate greedily and then hid in a cave, watching as the mother, who turned out to be a velociraptor, wept. The cry had become so depressing that Zander almost barfed up the meal. That night, he had dreams of egg yolk covering his claws and never being able to remove it, despite how much he had rinsed his hands.

Now that he was growing even more, insects, worms and eggs could no longer sustain him. He realized that Topps banishing him was the right choice. He knew that at some point, he was just going to snap. _Better out here than with my friends._

He noticed that, along with his height, his voice was starting to change. Instead of his carnivore voice being high pitched and juvenile, it was starting to get deeper and more terrifying. This frightened Zander, though he didn't know why.

Finally, the pit in his stomach became so unbearable that he knew he had to abandon his old prohibition against eating herbivores. The lesser carnivores around him were too fast for him and he was getting desperate. He spotted a hypsilophodon and licked his lips.

Zander sprinted after it, but the creature found out too early and changed directions when running, causing Zander to run into a canyon wall. He growled out of frustration and pain while the creature managed to flee. He huffed when he heard the deafening cry of the hypsilophodon just before the snapping of its neck. Zander was somewhat afraid to see who had done such damage when a pair of aged T-Rexes came into view, the female holding the prey. He cocked his head when the female dropped the prey in front of Zander and smiled.

"Everyone fails sometimes," said the female, who had a voice sweeter than his own mother's. "What's your name?"

"Zander," he replied.

The female cleared her throat. "I'm Desdemona. This here is Adelphos. It seems you're having trouble hunting."

Zander quickly looked at an insect crawling into a crevice in the canyon wall, thinking of how much he would have enjoyed it when he used to be smaller, some time ago. He shifted his attention to Desdemona, who seemed caring enough. He peeked at Adelphos, who seemed like the type to be stern with his offspring, but somehow gentle as well. The early-adolescent sighed.

"I've always survived off of insects and worms," he replied.

Desdemona and Adelphos turned around, speaking in hushed voices and communicating their intentions with slow nods, glances at the ground, and nuzzles. Zander couldn't pick up what they were saying, so he waited until they finished their conversation. Once they did, they turned around slowly, careful not to let their tails hit something.

"So you really need to learn to hunt, 'eh?" Adelphos asked.

Zander nodded sheepishly.

"Tell ya what, kid. You stay with us for about a week and you'll learn to hunt. After that, it's bye-bye to your ass."

Though Zander didn't like that Adelphos spoke so crudely, he agreed to the offer. Without them, he was going to die at this rate. They turned around and he followed them out of the canyon.

* * *

"Ya gotta be careful not to scare 'em," Adelphos said.

The three were perched on the top of a low cliff and Zander eyed a muttaburrasaurus that had trailed behind the rest of its herd. He tried to ignore the conversations between the herbivores and Adelphos sensed his worry.

"What?" he asked. "Ya think they can smell you?"

"No."

"Ah shit," Adelphos said. "They're in the perfect spot."

Desdemona chimed in. "Remember your timing, Zander. You have to have the element of surprise."

Zander nodded and waited for the muttaburrasaurus to trail far enough from the herd as it was willing to. He hoped that the herbivore wouldn't realize his mistake and run back to his family. Finally, when the plant-eater was just about to see how far his herd was, Zander leaped from the low cliff, landing squarely on the creature. He had broken a few of the guy's ribs and clawed his eyes before he rendered it immobile. He could hear Adelphos praising him from above and saw that Desdemona was smiling.

"That was perfect, Zander!" she said.

"Atta boy!" Adelphos praised before leaping down and seeing the weeping prey. "You still have to kill it. Ya know, unless you're into eating it alive. I met someone like that before."

"Who?"

"His name was Asar," Adelphos said as they sat down to split the meager meal. "I think he had a brother."

"Ah!" Desdemona replied. "I was mated with him. Alastor. We had two children."

"Back to what I was saying," Adelphos continued. "There was this guy named Asar. He managed to attract my two sisters, but sometimes he couldn't tell them apart because they looked similar. Even their names ended the same way. Mnemo_syne_ and Sophro_syne_."

Desdemona chuckled. "Alastor used to tell me that he and Asar always used to have duels."

"Who did he mate with?" Zander asked.

"Last time I heard, Mnemosyne wanted him but he liked Sophrosyne. She decided to leave him because she was hurting her sister, but not before she laid an egg for him. I remember she come cryin' to me, saying how she hoped Mnemosyne wouldn't crush her egg. She said she told Asar the names she chose for that babe. Neith for a girl, Lothair for a boy. Asar's been with Mnemosyne ever since. Sophrosyne died young, but I dunno what happened to my other sister."

"Alastor was much kinder than his brother, I can guess," Desdemona said, purring. "I remember once he saved me. Knocked down a tree for me so I can cross without losing my life. We had two kids: Conleth and Celosia."

"Conleth?" Zander asked, surprised.

"Did you know him?"

Adelphos laughed. "Let me guess. Mated to ya mother?"

Zander nodded, swallowing a piece of his meal and yawning. Desdemona and Adelphos looked at each other, laughing.

"A growing boy's gotta sleep," Adelphos chuckled before Zander plopped right on the hard ground, not caring about how hard he fell.

* * *

"So," Desdemona said, hoping to start up some conversation after a long walk in the Mysterious Beyond. "My son didn't teach you hunt?"

"It wasn't that," Zander replied. "I had refused to learn."

Adelphos nearly choked on his own saliva. Desdemona shifted her attention to the male, who was recovering from his own shock. Adelphos shook his head, indicating that he was all right, and Desdemona ignored him again.

"Why wouldn't you learn _that_?" Adelphos asked.

"I was still very little," Zander replied. "Besides, I didn't live with my parents for very long. After some time, I moved to the Great Valley with a Fast Runner."

"Ya mean an oviraptor," Adelphos corrected. "Fast Runner is baby talk, sonny."

"Her name was Ruby," Zander continued as if Adelphos had said nothing. "We traveled to the Great Valley where I hatched."

The adults stopped in their tracks and Adelphos let out a grunt of confusion. Zander stopped right behind them, wondering just what Adelphos would harp on now.

"What the hell is this 'Great Valley'?" he asked.

"It's an abundant place with several different species of herbivores that coexist peacefully," Zander explained. "No Sharpteeth whatsoever. They can't get in."

"And _you_ lived there?"

"Well, I hatched there and my parents came looking for me. As soon as my parents left, the inhabitants closed up the opening."

Adelphos went into a laughing fit, barely able to breathe, let alone stand. Desdemona was struggling not to chuckle herself, despite not wanting to hurt Zander's feelings. Zander could see Desdemona's chest shudder rapidly and the corners of her mouths turned upward. He should have expected this.

"W-w-wait, ya tellin' me that a bunch of plant-eaters are smart 'nuff to do that?" Adelphos asked between giggles. "They can't even talk!"

"Yes they can!" Zander defended. "And I know their language!"

Both of the aged adults fell over laughing. As he thought of everything that Littlefoot and his friends had done for him, his rage toward their mockery grew. Finally, for the first time, he uttered a profane word he had heard so rarely to match his emotions.

"Shut the _fuck_ up!" he roared, catching Desdemona and Adelphos by surprise. "I happen to know a group of Flatteeth that, in their childhood, managed to kill a T-Rex much larger than yourselves. I can go back to the Great Valley and summon them to kill the both of you!"

Desdemona stopped first. "You mean the myth of the Herbivore Children is true?"

"Myth?" Zander asked.

"Every Sharptooth knows the myth," Adelphos replied. "That a mixed group of herbivore children managed to kill a once greatly feared T-Rex. I never gave a three-horn's ass about it because I always thought it was flyer-shit."

"Well, it's true," Zander responded. "I met them the day I hatched."

"Why didn't they kill ya, then?" Adelphos asked.

"They fled, except for the Long Neck. He thought, because I was a baby, I wasn't yet dangerous. He tried to teach me to eat leaves!" Zander remembered fondly. "His name was Little Foot."

"Well, ya gonna become dangerous now," Adelphos replied. "That explains why ya not there anymore."

Zander decided to change the subject. "What were your parents like, Adelphos?"

Adelphos breathed deeply, his wrinkled eyes squinting as he tried to remember. "Agapios and Parthenope. They favored my younger twin sisters. Parthenope especially. She doted on 'em like they were gonna die right before her eyes. Good thing she died before Sophrosyne did, otherwise she woulda killed herself. Some Sharpteeth are like that."

"Kill themselves?" Zander asked. "Why would anyone do that?" He couldn't fathom the idea of desiring death.

"Sometimes life gets too hard and some think that death would be easier," Adelphos explained. "I don't get it myself, but some think that way. Others call 'em weak, make them want to die more."

"How are they not scared?"

"Dunno."

Zander decided to walk beside Adelphos rather than behind him. He felt strangely short compared to them, even for his age. It had been a while since he had left the Great Valley and he imagined that his friends grew substantially. He even thought of Hyp, the obnoxious adolescent hypsilophodon who had bullied his friends. Hyp had to be full-grown by now, likely having a mate and a child of his own. Zander remembered Hyp's father, who bordered on being verbally abusive with his son, and hoped that Hyp wouldn't turn out the same way. Hyp's father cooled down since Zander first met him, so he guessed Hyp's child would be all right.

* * *

"You're a funny looking kid, ya know that?"

"Well, no," Zander admitted. "Though the only other T-Rexes I've been around were my parents."

"And ya didn't notice that ya looked different from 'em?" Adelphos replied.

Zander looked at himself in the reflection of a diminishing pond. He had purple skin, the whites of his eyes were exposed, making his blood red pupils seem smaller, and he had three claws on each limb. He looked up at Desdemona and Adelphos, seeing that, unlike him, they only had two claws on each arm and the pupil took up all of the visible part of the eyes. Desdemona had yellow eyes, Adelphos had orange. They also sported longer snouts and rougher skin. Suddenly, Zander knew what Adelphos meant.

"Am I deformed?" he asked.

Desdemona sighed and Adelphos nodded.

"Yeah, kid, you are. Look how long your arms are for ya size. The whites of your eyes are showin', ya got three claws instead of two, you're short for ya age, and who the fuck has purple skin?"

Zander's head hung low. Never had he thought himself deformed. He started to wonder who would want to deal with him now and suddenly understood his father's strange disdain for him. He had the awful thought that he would forever live alone.

* * *

After spending a week with them, he took off in the middle of the night. He didn't have much energy, as would any cold-blooded creature during the night, so he avoided running. He spent a great deal walking away from the aged couple and decided that he would try to find others like him. Zander couldn't stand the thought of being the only one that... looked like this.

Some time after he had left Desdemona and Adelphos, he found a creature, which the two aged dinosaurs said was a _multituberculate. _He recognized the creature as being the same species that Skip was. He wondered if Skip and this creature knew each other.

Zander went up to greet it, mistakenly in Carnivore, when it ran into a crevice. He slapped himself for it and tried to remember how to speak Herbivore.

"Hello," he greeted in her native language. "I'm not going to hurt you."

She crawled out of the hole and looked up at him skittishly, her nose wiggling and wet. He sat down, indicating that he was not about to chase her any time soon, and she slowly walked up to the side of his huge foot. Zander smiled.

"You can talk?" asked the creature. "What's your name?"

"I'm Chomper," he replied.

"I'm Cula," she responded. "Why can you talk?"

Zander giggled. "We can all talk. Just not in your language. You look like someone I knew."

The multituberculate stood on its hind legs and its tiny tail perked up. Cula's nose wiggled, as if picking up a scent, and she rubbed her front paws together. Zander thought she was an adorable little creature.

"Who was it that you knew?" Cula asked.

"His name was Skip."

Cula's eyes widened and Zander knew that the name was familiar to her. She held her front paws together hopefully and her front teeth were exposed when she smiled.

"He was my dad!" Cula replied. "He knew all of the Mysterious Beyond near the Great Valley. He promised he would teach my brother and I everything about the Mysterious Beyond, but–"

"But he's dead," Zander said, as if Cula knew.

"He what?" Cula asked, tears forming at the rims of her eyes. "But... how?"

"Killed by a Fast Biter," Zander said almost apathetically, to his own surprise. "Have you seen any Sharpteeth like me?"

Cula pointed toward the North and scurried away, weeping.

* * *

"Who the hell are you?"

Zander looked up and saw a female T-Rex peering from atop a hill. She had dark red eyes like his own, except the whites of her eyes couldn't be seen, and she had pretty orange-brown scales. Her snout was the perfect size and her eyes were a lovely combination of beauty and ferocity. She opened her mouth a bit to reveal the sharpest teeth Zander had ever seen. He felt horribly inadequate in comparison.

"Zander," he replied.

"You have a deep voice for someone of your size," she replied. "Either you have a messed up voice or you're short for your age."

"What's your name?"

"Elvire," the female replied nonchalantly. "Are you alone?"

Zander nodded, realizing he was about to drool. He quickly hid this for fear of mockey.

"Yeah, I'm alone," he answered.

"Ha! I'm not!" Elvire teased before two others like her showed up.

The first to arrive was exactly her height, except her back was black and her color faded to orange-brown near her belly. Other than that, they looked exactly alike.

"Look what freak I found, Sorciere," said the pretty female.

The last one to come was shorter than her sisters. She was both brown and black and Zander thought that whoever made her couldn't decide on her color, so they put bits of color in random places. Her eyes were a reddish orange and less predatory than the other two females. Zander guessed she was pretty young. The little female seemed gentler and kinder, if a little shy.

"Since when are they _purple_?" asked Sorciere. "Look at his twig arms! And that extra claw, it looks like a wart!"

Elvire almost doubled over laughing. The smallest female simply raised a brow and cocked her head in confusion. While the older sisters were distracted, Zander introduced himself to her.

"I'm Zander," he said. "What about you?"

"Noir-Laoise," she meekly replied. "These are my half-sisters."

_That explains why Noir-Laoise isn't _all_ mean._

"Where are your parents?" he asked them, getting the attention of Elvire and Sorciere.

Just then, a herd of apatosauruses came into view and the three females licked their lips. Zander couldn't help but think that two of them looked familiar. He squinted his eyes and saw that one of them was Ali just in time for Elvire to attempt to hunt her. As appealing as she was to the eyes, he couldn't stand the thought of her killing Ali.

Especially after he showed her that some Sharpteeth can be kind.

Thinking quickly, Zander bit Elvire's tail, causing the female to let out a roar. Her cry warned the apatosaurus herd and Sorciere and Noir-Laoise jumped on Zander, causing him to let go of Elvire. Elvire continued to go after Ali before a male Long Neck came into view, tail swiping the T-Rex. Zander managed to get Sorciere and Noir-Laoise off of him to recognize the male as Rhett, the boy he had once scared off when he pretended to be a malicious carnivore. Rhett must have become braver since then, because Rhett was now defending Ali and a few juveniles from Elvire. Zander cried out, inexplicably in Flattooth, and Rhett's eyes widened when he saw the purple T-Rex.

"Kids," Rhett said in his own language. "Stay with the rest, your mother and I have to fight!"

"Rhett!" Ali replied. "There's four!"

"One of them is on our side," he answered. "Look!"

Ali shifted her eyes to Zander before she found herself knocking out Sorciere and attempting to prevent Noir-Laoise from getting the children. Zander almost found it oddly humorous that Noir-Laoise would consider targeting the children. She was too small to do anything else.

Rhett and Ali held the attention of the three sisters long enough for Zander to recover and get up. Once he did, he took to taking down Sorciere by tripping her, biting her tail, and otherwise sabotaging her attempts to kill either Rhett or Ali. Now Rhett could focus on fighting off Elvire, who was targeting Ali in order to make it difficult for Ali to protect her kids from the sneaky Noir-Laoise. It ultimately failed, as Noir-Laoise managed to grab a screaming female named Apa. As she did so, Ali attempted to fight Noir-Laoise, but Elvire stopped her. Zander couldn't watch the rest of the battle, as he was too wounded and too discouraged to continue fighting. All he remembered from that fight was that Apa, the little Long Neck, died that night, leave Ali and Rhett to mourn while the herd left.

That night, Zander did not eat.


	7. Part 2: Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Zander woke up to see that Apa the little Long Neck was all gone. All that was left of her was bones and Zander was pretty sure that either Elvire or Sorciere was going to break them and consume the marrow inside. He couldn't tell whether or not he was going to be sick and when he shifted in order to stand up, Sorciere took note.

"And where's our little freak going?" she asked.

Elvire started to chuckle and Zander hoped that she would choke on the bone she was chewing. He hated that he found her even remotely pretty. Elvire managed not to choke and she paid attention to Zander, whom she no doubt found somewhat ugly. Zander guessed that Elvire was going to ask him something humiliating.

"So who were your parents?" Elvire asked him.

Zander stopped. "Neith-Maia and Conleth."

"Bah! Were they related? Only incestuous parents would produce something as freakish as you!" Elvire laughed.

_Adelphos was right. I _am _deformed_.

"Conleth?" Sorciere asked. "He chose your mother over our dear Tanith?"

"Tanith?" Zander asked.

"Our mother, stupid!" Elvire replied. "And Conleth couldn't be your father! From what Mother told me, Conleth had only one sister, and it was definitely _not_ Neith-Maia."

Zander huffed angrily, indignant about these accusations against his parents. Sure, Conleth was a little strict, but he treated him like his own child. Of course he was his son! Why wouldn't he be? His anger only grew when he thought about the idea of his biological parents being related. It made him feel awful to think that he was some unwanted defect meant to live alone. Was every female going to reject him like this? He wished he could have stayed with his friends, who had (for the most part) accepted him from the start, despite having a much more legitimate reason to discriminate against him.

"Conleth must have 'cracked' our mother's 'shell' for the fun of it," Sorciere said bitterly. "Tanith has a thing for guys that leave her."

"What does she mean by 'cracking shells'?" Zander asked Elvire.

She simply scoffed at him, much to his dismay. "Funny how _I'm_ Tanith's daughter and _you _got her naivete!"

Sorciere, still playing with a bone, crinkled her nose as she overheard their dialogue. "Conleth schtupped my mother and chose yours."

"Did you get your cruelty from your mother, Sorciere?" Zander asked. "If so, that could be why my father rejected her! By the way, I hope you choke on that bone!"

Zander stormed off, much to the amusement of Elvire and Sorciere, and he heard Noir-Laoise follow him slowly behind. He tried to ignore the laughter of the two older sisters and failed, thinking that this was one of the few times he had actually wanted to hurt someone. Noir-Laoise was catching up to him and Zander thought that this little female wasn't so bad. She seemed strangely innocent, he concluded, and he thought he should give her chance. Elvire and Sorciere could rot and decay for all he cared, though some strange attraction to Elvire made him change his mind a little.

Finally, Zander turned around to see an embarrassed Noir-Laoise with one leg timidly lifted up. He chuckled at the sight.

"Why have you been so shy?" he asked.

Noir-Laoise shrugged. "You guys were doing most of the talking."

"It was more like arguing," he replied. "They've never been particularly nice to me."

"It's because you're deformed and they're mean," she replied. "They've been mean to me too, but that was before you came along."

"So they're always like that."

"Yeah."

Zander started to feel sorry for Noir-Laoise and nudged her on the head gently. She purred like a child would, humoring him, and he started to think about what Littlefoot had felt when he watched him hatch. _This must be what being an older brother feels like_, he thought to himself, though he didn't mutter it aloud.

"Wait, if Conleth mated with Tanith once before he left with my mother," Zander spoke. "Then who is _your_ father?"

Noir-Laoise shrugged. "My sisters say that Tanith didn't even know his name. I don't know why. They use it against me when they make fun of me, sometimes."

"At least they don't tell you that your deformed."

Noir-Laoise took a step back and examined him. First, she looked up and down, then back up again. He wondered what exactly it was that she saw.

"Your deformities help you, though, aside from the purple skin," she replied. "Your shortness doesn't hurt you and an extra claw on each upper limb can inflict more wounds. Longer arms mean you can reach farther and hold more."

They started to walk back when Zander encountered a small pond, only large enough to accommodate a few small fish. He watched as one jumped in the air and thought of when he first met Ruby. They were in a pond with her parents and siblings when he had been left with Ruby. That was the last time he had seen his mother, whom he was sure had left him there for his own protection. Ruby had proved to be a good guardian on a number of occasions.

"What are you thinking about?" Noir-Laoise asked.

"My old friend, Ruby," Zander explained. "She was an oviraptor. She and I went to this Great Valley because we wanted to see how different herbivore kinds could coexist together. You see, the Great Valley was abundant in..."

"Why would you need to know something like that?" Noir-Laoise asked.

Zander sighed. "I remember her parents saying that such knowledge would one day save them from..."

"Sharpteeth like us!" Sorciere interjected, only making her presence known now.

"From Red Claw, the Most Feared," Zander replied.

"Uh huh, sure," Sorciere retorted. "Mother told me that there was once a Sharptooth so strong and so terrifying that it made this 'Red Claw' look like a fucking pansy! What _is_ Red Claw? Baby-talk for another T-Rex?"

Zander raised an eyebrow and wondered if this was the Sharptooth that his herbivore friends had killed years ago. "What was its name?"

"Eh, don't know," Sorciere replied. "I think Lothair."

Zander couldn't help but chuckle to himself as he thought of Flatteeth legends, particularly the one about the Lone Dinosaur. Once, he feared that said dinosaur would try to kill him due to his hatred of Sharpteeth and his long record of defeating them.

"Eh, well, Flatteeth had legends of Long Necks so great that they would make you cry – at the very least," Zander mentioned.

"Oh, right, like they can talk!"

Zander couldn't help but burst into laughter, as the last time he had heard that exact phrase, it had come from Cera when she overheard his conversation with his parents while they were back on that island. It was just like Cera to doubt everything, and now that he thought about it, Sorciere must have been the same way.

"You know, Sorciere," he replied. "You remind me of a certain Three Horn Girl."

"Ha!" Sorciere scoffed and walked away.


	8. Part 2: Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Both Zander and Noir-Laoise waited as Sorciere joined Elvire in whatever they were doing. They only waited for a short period of time before they turned around and resumed their conversation. Zander could still hear Elvire and Sorciere in the background, but decided to ignore it.

"Zander?" Noir-Laoise asked.

"Hmm?"

"Did your parents have brothers or sisters?" she asked. "My mother had a sister, but I was told that she was an albino or something. Her name was Epine – I think."

Zander looked down, deep in thought. Noir-Laoise walked up beside him and tried to register his expressions. He looked at her.

"My mother, Neith-Maia," he started. "She had an older brother, whom I was named after."

"Did you ever meet him?"

"No."

Zander started to think about this uncle of his, who had actually taught Neith-Maia to hunt by a set of morals. He looked at Noir-Laoise, who had killed an herbivore child, and at his own claws. Hadn't he once been encouraged to kill in his childhood? Hadn't he once taken a life? He shuddered in disgust.

"Are herbivores actually sentient?" Noir-Laoise asked.

"Yes, they are," Zander replied. "Probably more so than your cruel sisters over there."

"You are as funny as Sorciere says!" interrupted Elvire, whose presence was previously unknown. "You probably believe in the myth of the Herbivore Children!"

"Myth?" Zander asked. "That would imply that it is false. For my first day of life, I was _raised_ by the Herbivore Children."

Elvire cackled. "If they killed the former Most Feared Sharptooth, why can't they save their pathetic allies from this 'Red Claw' that you told me about?"

Zander turned to face her. "They are safe in the Great Valley. 'Red Claw' never gets in."

His previous experiences told him that was a total lie.

* * *

Zander decided to leave the trio and walked along the shoreline, feeling the sticky water soothe his feet. He was getting a little hungry, but he didn't want to hunt now, as the image of Ali's daughter's death was still too fresh in his mind. He could only imagine how devastated Ali and Rhett were when he failed to save their child. He tried to push it out of his mind when he looked into the distance and saw a familiar island, the land bridge covered by water.

When he peered at it, he remembered when he offered to hide his friends from his parents. In particular, he recalled Littlefoot chasing after him when he left them at the Stinky Place, hurt that Cera would suspect him of turning on them. He started to long to see Littlefoot again. He wanted to see all of his friends again.

He stared out into the water, recalling the time he had been knocked off the cliff. Zander shuddered at the thought of being so vulnerable in the water and pushed the thought away, hoping to do something more productive with his time away from the three sisters.

_Huh,_ he thought_. There's one that nice but not pretty, one that's pretty but not nice, and one that's neither._

He sighed. "If only I could have both in a mate."

"Who are you?" asked someone from behind.

Zander turned around swiftly. There were two T-Rexes, a little younger than himself, both with dark green skin. One female, one male, he noticed, and they seemed to be related. Why did the T-Rexes he meet always come in twos (with the exception of Tanith's daughters)?

"M-m-my name is Zander," he stammered, a little unnerved by the encounter.

"Hm," said the female. "I'm Dyrdis. This is my brother, Asgeirr. He's not as strong as I am."

"Not true!" replied Asgeirr, who shoved her with less force than he intended.

Dyrdis shoved Asgeirr off of his feet and then pretended to lunge for his stomach, taking pretend bites. Asgeirr tried to contain his laughter as Dyrdis pretended to hunt him, making Zander wish that he had had a sibling to do this with as a child. Finally, Asgeirr got up, shaking the dust off of his body.

"My little brother needs to learn to hunt," complained Dyrdis.

"Father said I hatched only a minute after you did!" he replied. "And I _am_ slightly larger!"

"In what, your tail?"

Zander started to laugh hysterically when they started to bicker, as it reminded him of Littlefoot and Cera. He imagined his two old friends butting heads right now, as they had often done in the past. The two siblings noticed his laughter, but ignored it.

"In any case, my father is tired of this guy's failure," Dyrdis continued.

"I could... help."

"You can?" she asked.

He nodded.

* * *

"You're a good teacher," said Asgeirr as he tore a hunk of meat out of an overgrown struthiomimus.

"Thanks," Zander sighed.

"What's your deal?" asked Dyrdis. "He gave you a compliment."

Zander stared at the little creature and felt guilty, despite his past experiences with struthiomimuses. A pair had tried to kill him in his youth; their names were Ozzy and Strut. His parents had killed them and made a meal of out them, to the best of his memory, and he maintained a distance from them since.

"So, uh," Zander stammered. "What are your parents like?"

Dyrdis finished chewing an arm. "Parent. Not _parents_. Our mother is dead. My father is okay to us. He once cared for a deformed child that didn't belong to him because he loved our mother."

_Deformed. Like me._

"He told us the parents of the child were siblings. He said she didn't want to do it, but she was forced to, or something."

"I don't know how anyone can force a mate," Dyrdis added. "If it were me, I would have killed him before he even touched me."

"When did your mother die?" Zander asked.

"Before we hatched," Dyrdis replied. "Or at least that's what Conleth says."

"Conleth?!"

Dyrdis rolled her eyes. "Yes. Our father. Who do you _think_?"

Zander tried to push away that awful realization as Dyrdis and Asgeirr enthusiastically tore apart their meal. He wondered about this brother that they mentioned and couldn't decide whether or not to ask. However, before he could even consider it, he blurted out his concerns.

"Do you know who the brother was?" asked Zander.

Dyrdis shrugged without looking at him. "I think somebody named Lothair."

Zander remembered Adelphos mentioning something about a "Lothair" and tried to recall exactly what it was while he left the two siblings to eat in peace. After tossing it over in his head, he remembered that Adelphos' sister, Sophrosyne, had asked Asar to give that name to her child.

However, he still couldn't think about his mother.

* * *

**Sorry I haven't updated in a while. I'm working on fanfiction for The Giver and for The Planet Of The Apes. Also, I have AP tests coming up. Oy!**


	9. Part 2: Chapter 4

Chapter 4

"Where are you going?" Zander asked the two siblings.

"To our dad!"

Zander looked around, not seeing anyone for miles. He wasn't entirely sure what to do with himself if he was left alone, as he was accustomed to always having a companion. He watched Dyrdis and Asgeirr walk away without him, bickering with each other as he assumed that siblings would. He couldn't help but wonder what had happened to Conleth since he left for the Great Valley.

"Can I come?"

Dyrdis shrugged without looking back. "Sure."

He followed them, feeling a little better now that he was in the company of those who didn't mock him for his deformities. Zander watched as Dyrdis picked on Asgeirr, prompting them to nip at each other playfully. He couldn't stop chuckling to himself.

Finally, Dyrdis and Asgeirr led Zander to Conleth, who was half-asleep, for some reason. Conleth aged quite a bit since Zander last saw him, but he didn't lose his tough exterior, even in his vulnerable slumber. If Conleth opened his eyes right now, Zander thought he would intimidate others more because of the experience on saw in them.

Strangely enough, Conleth did open his eyes, proving Zander right. Once Conleth got up, he looked straight at Zander, his jaw dropping and his eyes widening.

Conleth broke down and started to cry.

"Daddy?" Zander asked, his voice returning to that prepubescent pitch. "What's wrong?"

"Zander," Conleth struggled. "I–I... I haven't seen you for years."

"Not since I went to the Great Valley," Zander replied.

Tears streamed down Conleth's face, breaking whatever illusion he had of a toughened soul. Dyrdis and Asgeirr stepped back and watched the awkward reunion between an aged father and one who wasn't really his son. Conleth nudged his head against Zander's.

"I haven't seen you since before your mother died."

_My... mother..._

Zander remembered when Jade and Sphene first entered the Great Valley, talking about a dead T-Rex they had encountered before they came. Realizing that his mother was the one they encountered (and beating himself up for not realizing it sooner), he felt he could not stay here with his foster father any longer. He turned around and walked away, not allowing himself to cry.

"Zander! Zander! Wait, come back!"

* * *

Zander looked at the dead Kentrosaurus in front of him. While other T-Rexes wouldn't have opted for smaller prey such as this, Zander was smaller in size, so this would have been enough for him. He looked at the gash marks he made in the creature, realizing that he had no wounds, despite the amount of protective horns on the thing. Zander grabbed the thing by its neck and dragged it to a safer place, so as not to attract flies.

He took a bite, careful not to let a horn poke out his eye, and tried not to look at the thing's face. Zander couldn't help but think what the Kentrosaurus said right before he died. The prey had screamed and cursed at him (as much as herbivores could, anyway, as their language contained no profanity), saying that he would not die in fear. Zander had to pretend not to understand, lest he be distracted by his prey's resistance.

His prey had tried to attack him with his tail, so Zander had kept to the creature's front and tried to corner him. After that, it was fairly simple, and the kentrosaurus was incapacitated quickly. Zander tried not to kill him quickly, as he knew he needed to get used to having to kill innocent creatures, so he let it suffer. The kentrosaurus had still spoken as he bled and Zander tried not to hear him, turning away whenever the prey's voice became louder than a murmur. Once the prey had died, Zander could pretend that the thing had never spoken at all.

He found it startling that he had been able to dissociate so easily. Then again, that must have been how his mother had hunted; she pretended that they had no identity.

Zander couldn't help but think of how Littlefoot would react if he had seen him like this. There was blood on his claws and mouth, blood that had tasted surprisingly good, and he licked himself clean. He tried not to think of his friends back at the Great Valley. Once those thoughts were as dead as his meal, he savored the fresh meat.

He had taken only a few bites when he heard relatively soft footsteps from behind. Thinking that perhaps Dyrdis or Asgeirr followed him, he sighed and turned around with an annoyed face.

Instead, he saw Elvire.

"Impressive," Elvire said, clearly trying to feign a lack of awe. "Takin' down that thing with so many horns."

"Not a scratch on me," Zander replied, displaying his body. "Where are your sisters?"

"Hunting, of course," she responded. "Though nothing _that_ difficult."

Zander looked back at the Kentrosaurus, shrugging. He found it amusing that Elvire, the female that had previously mocked him, found this single deed impressive.

"Is my impressive skill the only thing keeping you from mocking me?" Zander asked. "Or is that also due to the absence of your less attractive sister?"

Elvire let out a laugh, closing her eyes. Her chest vibrated as she did so.

"Did your claws or your sharp teeth do the job for you?" she asked.

Zander chuckled. "A bit of both. Mostly strategics. I've gotten quite used to compensating for my size."

"You ever think of sharpening your hidden tooth?"

Zander raised a hairless brow and stepped back, careful not to get stabbed by his own food. "My _what?_"

"My mother, Tanith, sharpened the hidden teeth of quite a few guys," Elvire reminded him. "And mostly just for fun. I'm damn sure Noir-Laoise is an accident."

"You mean you can mate... for fun?"

"Uh, yeah."

Zander cocked his head, struggling not to laugh at the absurdity of such a thing. Did those who engaged in recreational mating enjoy playing with the odds? If you weren't planning for a kid and the odds weren't in your favor... well...

"Why?"

Elvire shrugged. "My mother liked the feeling, as far as I know."

"And why did you bring up the topic to begin with?" Zander asked.

"Curiosity."

Zander shifted the weight onto his right leg, making a playfully sarcastic expression, mentally questioning why Elvire, of all T-Rexes, would ask him about such a thing. Then again, it was completely like her to tease him about it if she had such knowledge.

"The way you asked me about it made it seem like an offer."

"Well, maybe it is," Elvire replied. "Depending on how willing you are to take it."

"You're the one who suffers the consequences, though, not me."

"Ha! All the more reason for you to jump at the offer!" Elvire scoffed. "Now, I don't need to show you, do I?"

Zander realized he had no idea as to how to start when he saw Elvire kneeling, moving her tail out of the way. She rolled her eyes at his puzzlement, telling him to get his ass there before she got bored. She instructed him as to how to position himself, but from then on, instinct took over.

By the purrs that came out of their mouths, anyone could tell that Zander now knew why there was such a thing as recreational mating.

After they had finished, Zander immediately rested near his almost-finished prey and fell asleep in glee. His blurry vision barely caught Elvire leaving with a smile on her face before his eyes closed. When he woke up, she was gone and he was alone.

About a week after his last encounter with any T-Rex, Zander encountered a tiny pond with little fish swimming in it. He counted the fish, thinking of how quickly Ducky swam in her youth. Zander thought of her cheery self, always muttering "yup, yup, yup," and generally being afraid of heights. Zander never understood this fear himself, but then again, he was not a prey animal. Predatory animals loved heights, as this was where they had the advantage. A younger version of himself would have never believed that he was a born killer.

Now, though, he had full control over his predatory instincts. He could decide whether or not he would feel empathy for an herbivore, which strangely, didn't scare him anymore. Zander looked at the pond again, seeing that there were exactly six fish, and he decided to name them.

"You," he muttered to a fat one. "Are Spike, or Oraekor."

"You," he muttered to the seemingly arrogant one. "Are Cera."

"You," he muttered to a wiggly one. "Are Ducky."

"You," he muttered to one afraid to swim. "Are Petrie."

"You," he muttered to a fast one. "Are Ruby."

"You," he muttered a long, pensive one. "Are Littlefoot."

"And I," he muttered to himself. "Long to see you again."

Zander stared at that reflection, seeing how much he had changed since he had been banished in his youth. He wondered if everyone who had lived in the Great Valley was still there, if Grandma Longneck and Topps were still alive, and if not, who would be the new leaders of the diverse herds.

That night, he decided to go back.

* * *

**So this is the conclusion to Part 2: Banishment! There are two more parts and possibly an epilogue. **

**Review the chapter, listing criticisms, high points, and predictions!**


	10. Part 3: Chapter 1

**Part 3: Perimeter**

Chapter 1

It had taken a while for Zander to remember which way was the Great Valley. For a few days, he walked around in circles, encountering the same landmarks. He attributed his recent cognitive deficiency to hunger and hunted when he could, careful to give a quick and relatively painless death. When he hunted, he would pretend not to understand their cries and curses. Sometimes, during his trip back to the Great Valley, he would wonder how his old friends would react to his changes in diet. As he thought about this, he couldn't help but admit that Topps was wise in banning him for those years.

Once he had a few good days of hunting, his mind sharpened and he remembered the way again. This time, he went in a straight line to his destination, veering from the path only when prey forced him to. Sometimes he would consider communicating with one of them so he could have a friend on the journey, as he hadn't seen very many of those who shared his dietary habits along his path. Every time, he decided against it.

Sometimes, Zander would think about his mother. He couldn't help but be confused by the idea that he was the product of forced mating. He had also thought that Neith-Maia had only one older brother, whom he was named after. Zander had no idea that Neith-Maia had another older brother, Lothair, who had apparently surpassed Red Claw (whom Zander had learned a while back was Duncan) in ferocity. He remembered wondering if this T-Rex had been killed by his friends, the mythical Herbivore Children (he couldn't help but wonder which carnivore started that tale), and couldn't really understand why this "Lothair" would feel the need to force his sister into mating. Zander remembered the way Sorciere described Lothair, making it seem like he had already died.

_"Uh huh, sure," Sorciere retorted. "Mother told me that there was once a Sharptooth so strong and so terrifying that it made this 'Red Claw' look like a fucking pansy!"_

Zander remembered his stay with Desdemona and Adelphos, thinking of what Adelphos said about his sister, who wanted to mate with some male named Asar. Adelphos said that his sister had wanted to name her child Lothair. T_hat probably means Adelphos is my great uncle, _he thought.

Now thinking that he was sure his friends had killed Lothair years ago, he shuddered at the realization he made. He couldn't even look at himself and was disgusted by his own shadow, more disgusted than when everyone had called him deformed. This thought made him wonder if he should even bother returning to the Great Valley.

_My real father killed Littlefoot's mother._

* * *

After some time, Zander encountered a familiar pond. He looked around, trying to remember the last time he came here, and looked at his own reflection in the water. He saw that he looked considerably more intimidating than he did in his youth, though not nearly as frightening as the other carnivores he had encountered. The whites of his eyes were less apparent than they used to be and his teeth had sharpened considerably. Once he finished looking at his own reflection, he remembered that this was the place where he first met Ruby.

He noticed the river was less full than he remembered. There was a line along the shore that indicated where it used to be and Zander squinted at it. He also didn't see any fish in the river, somewhat to his dismay, but he saw a single Fast Biter. It had been a long time since a Fast Biter could outweigh him.

"Hello," Zander said the the Fast Biter. "What's your name? Where is all the water?"

"Echo," she replied. "A group of us carnivores are building a dam. Care to help?"

"Well, no," he responded. "Sorry, Echo. I have other things to do right now."

Echo the Fast Biter stepped back and cocked her head, staring at him. Zander wondered if she thought he wasn't as intimidating as other T-Rexes, a part of himself that he was somewhat ashamed of. Instead, she brought up another flaw.

"Why are you deformed?" asked the female.

"My parents were siblings," Zander replied grumpily. "Don't ask me anything else."

Echo shrugged and ran off. Zander's eyes followed her and he saw her running to Seasnan (whom he formerly knew by his Flattooth name: Screech). He could hear Echo and Seasnan chatting when he spotted a juvenile Fast Biter hiding behind Seasnan.

"Come out, Eunoe," Zander heard before he walked away from the river.

As the family of Fast Biters left to their business, Zander paced, occasionally glancing at the Great Valley wall to see if there was an opening. He knew he could not go back the way he left, as he was much too large and any obvious opening would have been immediately closed up. At one point, he thought that his journey back here may not have served any use, as there was a slim chance of his ban being lifted.

Zander thought about the Time of the Great Giving, a ceremony in which all of the herbivores in the Great Valley gathered food to share with one another. The ceremony started after a drought hit, causing conflict among the denizens. Of course, Zander wasn't there when the entire thing happened, so he had to rely on others' accounts, such as that of Littlefoot and Hyp.

During the ceremony, he had felt lonely because he could not join the others in their festivities. In a bout of folly, he had gone to the Mysterious Beyond and attempted to teach other Sharpteeth to be "nice". He had stupidly thought that "nice" meant befriending one's food and wondered how dumb it would be to apply such a definition to Flatteeth. He tried to imagine Cera talking to a leaf and asking it if it wanted to play. Zander chuckled at the thought before he remembered his failed attempts to befriend other Sharpeeth.

He had once tried to communicate to a juvenile Metriacanthosaurus in Flattooth, asking him if he wanted to play catch. The creature, possibly mistaking Zander for a Flattooth, brought his parents to kill him. At that point, Zander had decided to give up on befriending Sharpteeth, a choice he never really followed through on once he was banished from the Great Valley.

Just then, he heard a low growl and turned around to see an adult Metriacanthosaurus. Zander could have sworn that this creature had the exact same coloring as the juvenile that had once considered him prey. He stepped back.

"I remember you," said the creature. "You're just as freakish as when I first saw you."

"You should be careful to those who are sensitive to things like that," sighed Zander.

The male simply laughed. "Do you still mumble like an idiot Flattooth?"

"No!" Zander replied defensively.

The male chuckled at Zander's immature response and upturned his snout. Zander saw that this guy was larger than him and felt insecure, wishing that one of his deformities hadn't been stunted growth. He looked at his own claws, glad that he had three on each short limb. Zander remembered Noir-Laoise saying that it would give him a good advantage.

"I'm Virtus," said the male. "Please tell me you have a name."

"Zander," he replied. "And why did your parents try to kill me years ago?"

Virtus examined him. "At the time, we couldn't tell what you were. You spoke like a Flattooth, so I just assumed you were odd-looking food."

"And, if they were still here? Would they kill me now?"

"With some inhibitions, yes," replied Virtus.

Zander couldn't help but laugh at the ridiculousness of the comment. He wondered how many of his generation's parents were still alive and how many his age already had children. He could safely guess that the Herbivore Children were now full grown with kids of their own.

Once Zander stopped laughing, he responded to Virtus's comment. "It's fortunate that I knew how to survive."

"Clearly. Now, I challenge you to a duel."

"Why?"

"Why not?" Virtus replied. "We're not gonna kill each other. Just a nice duel. First one to get the other pinned down for ten seconds wins."

Zander agreed, immediately regretting it, but he didn't want to seem like a coward to Virtus. He could see the smile form on Virtus's face and hoped that his own fear didn't convey itself in his body language or facial expressions. By the time Zander figured out how to hide his fear, Virtus was already charging at him.

Zander just barely managed to keep his feet on the ground. He had stumbled a bit and Virtus was already preparing to smack him with his tail when Zander pushed on Virtus's side with his head. _I guess we aren't using teeth_, Zander thought as Virtus stumbled backward, careful not to fall to the ground.

Virtus finally got Zander to fall down and pinned him down with his foot. Zander struggled underneath while Virtus tried not to chuckle at the sight, counting down.

"Ten, nine, eight, seven," Virtus continued as Zander tried to find a way to get him off. "Six, five, four, three, two."

Zander used one of his legs to trip Virtus, making him tumble with a loud thud while he stood over him. Zander used one leg to hold him down by his abdomen and another to pin down his tail. Zander pressed down as hard as he could, making sure to use the most of his bodyweight to keep Virtus from throwing him off. In the same tone that Virtus had used earlier, Zander started counting down.

"Ten. Nine. Eight. Seven. Six. Five. Four. Three. Two. One," Zander counted, the last number being said with triumph before he let Virtus back up again.

Virtus shook the dust off of him and chuckled nervously, still recovering from defeat. He looked at Zander straight in the eye with a mischievous smile, showing that all was good.

"I'd hate to have you as an enemy," Virtus spoke. "Now, if none of my bones are broken, I'm going to help build that dam."

Zander watched Virtus leave and couldn't help but wonder why this dam was being built. However, it didn't strike him to find out until later, so Zander continuously paced around the Great Valley Wall, hoping for a way inside.


	11. Part 3: Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Zander kept traveling around the Great Valley Wall. He always wondered how they kept predators out when large herbivores could get in quite easily. Perhaps the hidden entrance had something that repelled predators like him. The only entrances Zander had gone through in his lifetime were either very small or blocked up somehow.

Zander passed by an exit his group had once used (this was the exit they went through right before he got stuck on that ledge with Ducky) and saw a group of herbivore juveniles playing beside it. He watched them, taking note of each species, and noticed one oviraptor. To him, she looked exactly like juvenile Ruby.

He took note of the triceratops acting aggressively and breaking every rock in sight. _Exactly like Cera,_ he thought. A single flyer hovered over them, carrying a young parasaurolophus female. One odd creature that he didn't know the name for (though he heard that Herbivores called them Hollow-Heads) was interacting with one Long Neck. He was attempting to guess whose children they were when the female mounted on the flyer's back spotted them.

"Sharptooth!" she cried, sounding exactly like Ducky in her youth.

"Wait, where are you going?" he called to them. "I'm not going to hurt you!"

He saw that they were even more frightened of him now. The Long Neck was making sure his friends were getting out safely and the Three Horn was making comments about facing the Sharptooth himself. Immediately, Zander realized he had mistakenly communicated to them in Carnivore.

"Wait!" he called to them in their language, stopping them right in their tracks.

The Hollow-Horn (which Zander finally remembered was a corythosaurus) stepped forward slightly, her eyes widened in shock. Zander lowered his head, careful to hide his piercing teeth, and saw that the female was now unafraid. The triceratops stepped forward, careful to protect the female, and the apatosaurus guarded her other side. The flyer still carried the parasaurolophus on his back and remained far away from Zander's intimidating form. The ovirapter hid from him.

"Hello," said the female.

"Hi," Zander replied. "I'm not going to hurt you."

"My mother," the female responded. "She told me about a benevolent Sharptooth. No one believed her, at least, no one acted like they believed her."

The triceratops looked at the female corythosaurus skeptically. The apatosaurus held the same attitude, but was more subtle about it. The other two children were still too far from Zander for him to see their expressions.

"What is your name?" Zander asked.

"Oryt," she said. "My mother said the Sharptooth spared her life when his parents killed hers."

Zander remembered when his mother and father had hunted a pair of corythosauruses before. As he had not yet wrapped his head around the idea of hunting, he guarded the juvenile female and told her where to run if she didn't want to get caught. His parents, particularly his father, had gotten angry at him for it.

"Was Thosa her name?"

Oryt nodded. "You're the Benevolent Sharptooth, aren't you? What's your name?"

"Chomper," he replied. "A Long Neck named me Chomper when I first hatched. What are your names?"

"Bambo," said the triceratops boy.

The young apatosaurus spoke up. "I'm Ato."

The trio that stood in front of Zander looked behind at the other three who had previously hid. The parasaurolophus was on the ground now with the flyer at her side and the oviraptor guarded them both. Zander peered at them affectionately.

"Who might you be?" he asked them.

"That's Para," Bambo said, referencing the swimmer.

"I can introduce myself!" she spoke, indignant.

Zander laughed a bit, his breath giving off a stench. The young children crinkled their noses, amusing him, and they stepped back.

"Rannie's the flyer," said the oviraptor. "And I'm Pearl."

"What happened to my old friends?" he asked himself.

The children overheard him, as his voice wasn't particularly quiet, and they all looked at each other skeptically. Zander understood that most herbivores thought Sharpteeth couldn't have friends. Hell, most didn't even think Sharpteeth could talk.

"Friends?" Bambo asked. "My father said Sharpteeth can't feel nor can they talk."

"Just wait until your father meets me," Zander replied jokingly. "Who are your parents?"

"Izer and Cera."

Zander smiled. "Cera, hmm? I knew a Cera. Very proud of herself, she was. Childhood friend. Speaking of which, what happened to her? And to Littlefoot and Ducky and Petrie and Spike and Ruby?"

"Ruby's my mother!" Pearl jumped excitedly.

Para spoke next. "Ducky is my mommy!"

"Petrie me daddy," Rannie spoke, his poor grammar similar to his father's.

Zander peered at Ato the Long Neck. "And you?"

"My parents are Ali and Rhett," replied Ato. "Littlefoot and Spike didn't have any kids."

"Ali and Rhett," Zander muttered. "I understand your late sister is Apa."

Ato nodded mournfully.

"I offer my condolences."

Pearl walked up to Ato's side, feeling more comfortable around the Benevolent Sharptooth. Zander saw that Pearl looked and sounded exactly like Ruby. If she had a father, she probably looked nothing like him.

"Spike can sometimes roar like a Sharptooth."

"I taught him that," Zander remembered. "Who leads the Great Valley now?"

"Littlefoot," they all said.

Zander heard Virtus roar in the distance. He was probably shouting orders at other, lesser Sharpteeth to help him complete the dam. Why the dam was there, he didn't know.

"I heard a cruel Sharptooth," Zander said. "Best you get back to the Valley."


	12. Part 3: Chapter 3

Chapter 3

"There you are," Virtus said to Zander. "I thought I heard someone mumble like an idiot Flattooth."

"Shut up," Zander replied.

Virtus let out a laugh. Zander looked down, hoping that the young herbivore juveniles had gone far into the Great Valley by now. After seeing none of them, he sighed.

"So explain this dam," Zander spoke.

"Do you know who Duncan is?" Virtus asked.

Zander shook his head, feigning ignorance. He didn't look directly at Virtus. Virtus growled softly, enjoying the particularly hot day.

"He has a scar," Virtus clarified. "And he thought that a dam would stop the water from flowing into that valley. Since we can't get in the valley, we have to drive _them out_."

Zander remembered Littlefoot telling him a little bit about their annual Great Giving ceremony. There had been a drought, causing conflict among the denizens of the Great Valley, and the food source was quickly being depleted as a result. They had had to go out of the Great Valley to see what was blocking the water. It had turned out that a meteor shower of some sort loosened up several boulders, creating a dam. At that time, no predator had planned it.

This time was different. Zander knew there would be a huge ambush.

He wondered if he could still play the role of the "Nice Sharptooth" that he had been in his childhood. Back then, he was the idealist. He didn't have to struggle with loyalties because he had had an alternate food source. Now, he was much too large to survive solely on insects. As he thought more about it, he realized that condemning others for following their instincts when he had made quite a few kills was hypocritical. At least the other carnivores were honest when it came to predation and whatnot.

He then thought about Littlefoot, the Long Neck who was there at his hatching. Everyone had fled at the sight of him, but Littlefoot had been caught by a vine and thrown back. Littlefoot had realized that, as a baby, he could not yet hurt others. For someone to risk predation to raise a hatchling, especially when he was a juvenile himself, could have never been seen anywhere else. Then again, Littlefoot was an idealist as well. He wondered if Littlefoot and Cera still quarreled.

"It won't be hard to drive them out," said Virtus. "I don't see why anyone would betray the group. Who would sympathize with food?"

"Have you heard the myth of the Herbivore Children?"

Virtus let out a laugh. "Yes, and it's so stupid!"

"Why?"

"A T-Rex _that_ frightening, _that _strong, and _that_ merciless being defeated by herbivore hatchings? It's asinine to think that little things without even the vaguest hint of self-awareness would defeat someone like that."

"Then why do they flee from a predator?" he asked, trying not to show anger at Virtus's accusation.

"Because they're scared little shits!"

Zander huffed, almost giving himself away. "If they fear the end of their lives, that must hint at at least a primitive form of self-awareness. Tell me, Virtus, do you fear death?"

Virtus raised a hairless brow. "What kind of question is _that_?"

"What do you mean?"

"Everyone fears death," Virtus replied. "Otherwise we wouldn't kill for the purpose of self-preservation."

"I see."

Virtus looked at Zander skeptically. "You are the oddest carnivore I have met so far."

"You aren't the first to say that," Zander replied, thinking of Elvire, the girl he had barely gotten to know and yet mated with.

He started to wonder where those three sisters were when Virtus huffed and left him to think. Noir-Laoise had been the kindest of the three. Zander started to miss Noir-Laoise as well as the half-siblings he had met when he reencountered Conleth. Conleth's breakdown had affected him, though he didn't really realize it until now. Zander also realized that he hadn't adequately mourned his mother's death.

_Not like Flatteeth mourn their dead._

He started to wonder about carnivore familial bonds. Do parents ever feel tempted to eat their young? Zander shuddered at the thought, as he had been used to befriending those meant to be his food.

He wandered away from the Great Valley wall and found a juvenile raptor pouncing on some branches. He remembered her as a little girl named Eunoe. He listened closely at her high-pitched voice, giggling as he heard her pretend growls.

"Grr, I got you," Eunoe said to her branches. "Scratch, attack!"

He recognized this as attempts to practice her hunting. _Hunting_, he thought, _or killing, it's the same thing._ He remembered a Fast Biter had killed Ruby's parents. Zander didn't know which one, which now mildly annoyed him. He saw Screech call for Eunoe, realizing that Screech was her father, and walked away.


	13. Part 3: Chapter 4

Chapter 4

After spending a few days walking along the Great Valley wall, Zander had returned to the cave he once explored as a child. He sat down, his tail sprawled over some rocks, and looked out into the Mysterious Beyond. It was no longer mysterious to him; he had spent a majority of his life span in it. Reflecting on this, he thought of more suitable names for such a place: the Dangerous Beyond, the Varied Beyond, the Vast Beyond. The Mysterious Beyond seemed to go on forever; the Great Valley was confined within the protective wall around it. Zander smiled, thinking that he belonged out here. He may not have hatched out here, but he grew up out here. The Great Valley had only been a short chapter of his life.

He spotted the cave and saw Ato cautiously peer out. Ato moved his head and made eye contact with Zander, who flashed a grin. Ato slowly walked out, telling his friends that the Benevolent Sharptooth was here. Rannie carried Para on her back, Bambo begrudgingly followed, and Oryt enthusiastically greeted the carnivore towering over them. Zander made himself comfortable, shaking his feet like a young child. Bambo snarled.

"You're very much like your mother, Bambo," Zander laughed. "She did _not_ like me at first."

Bambo rolled his eyes. Para got off of Rannie's back and stepped beside Ato. Zander noticed Pearl was missing.

"Where's your Fast Runner friend?" he asked.

"Pearl wasn't feeling good," Ato answered. "She doesn't have the best health, so it's not like we can bring her into the Mysterious Beyond whenever we like."

Zander chuckled. "So your choice is to leave her behind?"

"Why should we let her spoil our fun?" Bambo snarled, ramming his head into different rocks. "With her, it's 'don't do this, don't do that'. I'm tired of it."

"Did she warn you against the Mysterious Beyond?"

"Uh-huh," Bambo replied, aggravated.

"Smart girl," Zander replied. "Some time ago, my friends and I explored this place. We were tired of visiting the same places each day. It was Cera's idea to find something new. We had unwittingly ventured out into what you call the Mysterious Beyond. We ended up running into Red Claw, Screech, and Thud."

"Thud?" they all asked in unison before letting Ato speak. "We've only seen Screech."

"Well, there used to be another one named Thud. We managed to get away from Red Claw, but Screech and Thud were after us. There was a large earth-shake that separated Ducky and I from the rest of the group. Ducky and I got stuck with Thud, who was trapped under some rocks."

"What stopped you from eating my mother?" Para asked.

"Thud asked the same thing," Zander said with a smile. "He called me Little Biter and asked if I refused to let Thud get to her just to have a meal all to myself."

Bambo had stopped ramming into rocks and settled down on the warm ground. He used his front leg to scratch his neck. Oryt sat down beside Bambo, Rannie wrapped his wings around Para, and Ato sat in front of all of them. _Long Necks have a tendency to be leaders of their herds, don't they? H_e smiled at the thought, remembering the number of times Littlefoot had taken on a leadership role.

"I hadn't ever believed in the Benevolent Sharptooth before," Bambo admitted.

"I'm not surprised," he replied. "Not many would believe in the existence of someone like me. Even when some saw me, they would not believe. I remember once, my friends were all talking about the Lone Dinosaur. They said he despised Sharpteeth, that he was capable of killing even the toughest of them, that he could smell their presence and wipe them out. I was only a child, not even Ato's size yet. I had thought that this Lone Dinosaur had wanted to kill me. Strangely enough, when I had a nightmare about him, my mind had fashioned him up to be a Long Neck who roared and had teeth like a Sharptooth. Strange how I internalized fear over those like me."

"Littlefoot had told me about the Lone Dinosaur once," Ato admitted. "I heard he wasn't the Lone Dinosaur anymore. He had some lady-friend named Dara. I don't know what happened to him since. Littlefoot said he was just a child when he last saw him."

Rannie unwrapped his wings and separated himself from Para. Para followed him, mildly annoying the flyer, and Rannie walked up to the side of Zander's foot.

"Why didn't you stay in the Great Valley if you were friends with us Leafeaters?"

Zander sighed. "I was banned."

"Makes sense," said Bambo. Everyone glared at him, with the exception of the Benign Predator, and Bambo explained himself. "I mean, he had to have _some_ food source. Why would we want it to be us?"

"When I was your age, I fed off of insects," Zander explained. "And my diet was not why I was banned."

The children didn't ask why. Instead, they all got up, Ato leading them, and they went to Zander's side. He looked down at them with a grin, revealing his sharp teeth and convivial nature. Bambo covered his nose.

"Your breath stinks."

Ato smacked Bambo with his tail, shutting him up. "Whose idea was the ban anyway?"

"It was Cera's father," Zander explained.

The children then huddled, making sure Zander wouldn't hear them. He stared out, hoping that no carnivore was spying on him at present, and worried about the children's safety. At least they were near an emergency entrance back into the Great Valley.

Ato turned away from the huddle, calling Zander by his old name. "Chomper! We could ask the adults to lift the ban."

"We could! We could!" repeated Para, sounding just like Ducky.

"Me agree," said Rannie.

"Well thanks, go see how that works out," Zander replied, trying not to sound sarcastic. "I suggest you get back into the Great Valley now."

They all left, saying goodbye. After Zander made sure they were safe, he turned his head to see Thud in the distance, remembering his carnivore name.

"Thorgeir."


	14. Part 4: Chapter 1

**Part 4: Great Battle**

Chapter 1

Thorgeir had concealed himself behind a tree. Zander could smell him and had decided to call his name. Thorgeir looked around, alert, and slowly stepped out from his hiding place. Zander now dwarfed him, something he was slightly smug about, and he waited patiently as Thorgeir cautiously approached him. The younger carnivore looked around, glad that no one was watching them.

"Duncan does not like defectors," Thorgeir warned.

"This doesn't surprise me," Zander replied. "I remember you saved my life the day I was banned from the Great Valley."

Thorgeir let out a grunt and scratched the side of his leg. "You aren't the only one working as a species double-agent. Since the day you let my tail loose from those rocks, I contemplated the possibility of being friends with herbivores. Many times, I thought this was ridiculous, but I thought maybe it could benefit me somehow. It certainly benefited you."

"I was hatched by herbivores in the Great Valley," Zander explained. "I befriended them before I even met my parents."

"Hmph," Thorgeir replied. "I can't communicate in their language and your friendship with them still puzzles me." He then shrugged. "It's still better than being Duncan's servant."

"That incident years ago doesn't tell me enough about why you defected," Zander pointed out. "There's got to be something more. Your servitude to Duncan benefited you, from what I saw."

Thorgeir sighed, letting out meaty breath. Zander could tell he just recently made a kill.

"Do you really think Duncan genuinely cared about Seasnan and I?"

It took Zander a moment to remember that Seasnan and Screech were the same Sharptooth. He wondered why herbivores and carnivores had such different names.

"He may not be the strongest physically," Thorgeir explained. "But there is a reason even other carnivores fear him. He's not the most sane. He is heartless even for carnivore standards. He claims to care about his 'subjects', but in the end, we are just tools to be manipulated."

Zander raised a hairless brow. "What do you mean?"

"I had a family to care for. I had a mate and two children. They were the most amazing children I ever saw. A little boy and a little girl. They were the best thing that had happened to me. My mate, her name was Gabija, she named our little girl Kenina. I named my son Pyrros. Seasnan, he is my brother, saw that my mate and I were struggling to get food for Kenina and Pyrros. He suggested that I ally myself with him and Duncan. He said that Duncan would help us get food and protection, so naturally I accepted the offer. After some time, Duncan started showing signs of his insanity. I was considering defecting and he knew it. One day, when Screech was off trying to woo some mate, Duncan cornered me and threatened to kill and eat my entire family if I didn't remain loyal. Out of fear, I swore my loyalty to him. Later that week, he helped me get some food, which I planned to bring back to my family. I got back to our meeting place to find the corpses of my mate and children, half-consumed."

"How long ago was this?" Zander asked.

"Shortly after I protected you from him," Thorgeir explained. "He suspected me of being disloyal when I attempted to hide you. Of course, he didn't _know_ I was trying to ensure your safety. He only knew that something was strange about my behavior."

Zander huffed, grinding his teeth, angry at himself. "Nice to know I'm responsible for multiple deaths."

Thorgeir laughed. "We're carnivores. We can't help it."

"No," he corrected, thinking of Grandpa Longneck dying at the hands of Red Claw. "I meant I'm responsible for those who died for my protection."

Thorgeir ignored the comment. "Since then, I attempted to avoid Duncan. Seasnan would try to find me. Hiding from them has been difficult, even more so now, considering how many servants Duncan has now acquired. That's why I took to hiding in plain sight."

"So what are you now?" Zander asked.

"To other carnivores, I'm a low level servant. I get quite a bit of information out of others, though."

"So I take it you're familiar with this 'dam project'," Zander replied. "Tell me more about it."

"Duncan knows how difficult getting in is for predators. He has only succeeded once before," Thorgeir answered, making Zander think about the day he was banned. "So he wants to lure them out. He wants to cause an artificial drought so the residents would have to look elsewhere for water, making them vulnerable to us because they would be weak. Duncan is motivating the others by stating that they would receive the spoils of battle."

"Wouldn't there still be leaves for some time?" Zander asked. "That would give them more than enough time to figure out what was going on and mobilize. They've faced a similar drought before."

Thorgeir shook his head. "Duncan is trying to find a way to reduce vegetation in the area. How, I'm not sure."

Zander wanted to know why Thorgeir wasn't simply staying neutral. Why had he sympathized with herbivores? Then again, that was a question many had asked him before. He was about to ask Thorgeir, but the Fast Biter left before Zander could ask any more questions.


	15. Part 4: Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Zander started to walk around the perimeter again, not wanting to see what was going on with the dam project. Mostly, it was because he didn't want to risk being seen by Duncan. He also didn't like seeing other carnivores organizing materials, not even noticing him despite his deformity, and all talking about how they would reap the benefits of their hard work. Something about all of this unnerved him, so he decided he had to get away from that.

When he walked away, he noticed that the vegetation around the area became increasingly sparse. Zander saw that, in the distance, the number of trees had decreased since he last came. He wondered how many herbivores were attempting to find the Great Valley and how many died, never finding the paradise. Those unfortunate ones either died of starvation, sickness, or predation. He couldn't help but think that his past prey were looking for the Great Valley only to fail so miserably.

Zander spent the entire night walking, growing very tired. He also felt his stomach rumble and, thinking that the little juvenile herbivores could look for him only to be _eaten_ by him, decided to fill it with those he could never form an emotional attachment to. He spotted a carnivore juvenile gathering sticks and licked his scaly lips.

Zander slowly stalked the carnivore child, thinking of how often he had been threatened by superior Sharpteeth. It wasn't long before the kid noticed the shadow over him. He looked up at the deformed adult, who opened his jaws and put the creature in his mouth. The child screamed inside the confines of his jaws and only the kid's foot stuck out, bleeding thanks to Zander's teeth piercing it. Zander used his tongue to move the kid's head toward his teeth and clamped down, breaking his neck.

Zander swallowed the thing whole, wincing a bit when he felt the dead kid's claws scratch his insides a bit. Soon enough, his stomach acid was dissolving the creature's bones and skin and Zander felt full. Though he felt slightly guilty preying on a child, he was at least relieved that the target wasn't the children of his old friends.

He saw the sun rise and realized that he was on the opposite side of the Great Valley perimeter. He was glad to be out of sight of other carnivores when he heard rocks rumble from the haven wall. Zander looked to his side and saw a small horn poking out from some loose rocks. He looked more closely and saw an identical horn beside it. The two horns started shaking and the pile of rocks came completely loose, revealing a face he had not seen in a long time.

"Cera?" he asked, his voice increasing in pitch until it sounded almost childlike.

She shook some of the rocks off of her head. Zander noticed that her scales had darkened since he last saw her. She looked up at him somewhat grumpily due to the rocks that kept hitting her head. Once she shook her head clean of whatever bothered her, she stared at Zander.

"Chomper!" she semi-whispered, wide-eyed. "The kids were right, you are back!"

"Indeed I am," he replied. "And your horns grew in nicely. They look like they could kill Red Claw."

Cera smiled, moving her head a little bit to flaunt her horns. "Thank you."

Cera pulled back into the hole she made and motioned for Zander to follow her in. He looked inside and saw the unmistakable Great Valley grass. Zander noticed the tall trees that could only be found in such a paradise and the numerous families that slept in peace. The memory of his banishment came back and it took every amount of strength in him not to cry.

"The ban was lifted," Cera said nonchalantly.

Zander somewhat relaxed. "That easily? How?"

Cera sighed, her horns pointing at the ground in front of her face. Zander saw her tense up a bit. Though Cera usually tried to hide her pain, those close enough to her could usually detect it anyway. The signs of distress were unmistakable.

"The ones who imposed the ban," Cera whispered. "Died a long time ago."

Zander remembered Grandpa Longneck dying to defend him. He pushed the memory to the back of his mind. There were other pressing matters at hand. _Or at claw._

Cera let out a low chuckle. "Us and our friends, we're the oldest generation in the Great Valley. You can guess who the leader is now."

"Littlefoot."

Cera smiled. "I'm sort of glad he's the leader of the Great Valley. At least I know what kind of leadership style he has. When I think about it, it's not all different from when we were children. He would unite us all, we would listen, I would sometimes object to something he said and we would get at each other's throats. Littlefoot still irritates me sometimes, but if he didn't, I'd think there was something wrong. That's how our friendship had always been, ever since we first met in the Mysterious Beyond."

"So in other words, Grandpa Longneck changed into a lighter skinned form and Topps had a strange sex change."

Cera struggled not to laugh and Zander could see her torso vibrate. He could also see the families waking up, nudging their hatchlings so they could get the good tree stars. Cera didn't seem to notice, as this must have been commonplace for her. Zander kind of missed the sight.

"What did you do all those years in the Mysterious Beyond?" she asked.

"I learned a bit about my family," Zander replied, not wanting to reveal everything he knew.

"Oh," Cera replied. "Did you ever hunt... uh, never mind."

_You were going to ask if I have ever killed anyone, weren't you? _Zander followed her in and Cera moved a giant boulder in order to seal the entrance. He watched her struggle with this and volunteered to help, but she rejected it. _Classic Cera_._  
_

When he faced the denizens of the Great Valley, all they could do was stand in awe by his presence.

* * *

**HEY! Do you know the site 8tracks? I want to make a playlist based off of either Chomper or his mother. Any song suggestions?**


	16. Part 4: Chapter 3

Chapter 3

"The Benevolent Predator," many said in awe.

The children were the first to surround him. He saw Ato and Bambo standing together, Para standing on Bambo's back. Rannie perched himself on Ato's head. Oryt stood next to Ato. Pearl approached him from the side, still fearing his strength. Zander chuckled at her action. There were enough adult herbivores to beat him to a pulp.

Cera was still by his side. She smiled at his shyness, which contradicted his predatory nature. Zander deduced that his own shyness stemmed from a predator's yearning to be high up, looking down on his prey rather than surrounded by those who gain their strength from their numbers. There were certainly high numbers here.

Zander spotted his old friends. Spike actually smacked a small tree down with his tail as he came to the scene. Petrie flew above Zander, laughing as he did so. Ducky walked with her numerous children, all looking exactly alike. Finally, the leader of the Great Valley stomped in with his ironically large feet and his long, powerful neck.

Littlefoot.

"Hello, Chomper," he said, his voice deeper than Zander remembered.

"It's been a long time since I heard that name."

Cera grumbled. "Oh, it's not like I didn't recently address you with it."

"I see Cera still retained some of her sarcasm."

Many around them chuckled, causing Cera to groan a bit. She moved to the side, positioning herself next to her mate, and allowed Littlefoot to approach Zander. Ducky and Petrie were trying to conceal their excitement among everyone else's tension.

"It's okay, guys," Littlefoot said to Ducky and Petrie.

Ducky ran to Zander and hugged him tightly while Petrie perched himself on his back. Ducky was rubbing her bill against him, which made him laugh. Nearby, Spike growls in a way that only Zander can understand.

"Hello, Zander," Spike said in his second language.

"It's been a long time, Oraekor," Zander replied, using Spike's 'carnivore' name. "And these two are heavy, especially the flyer."

Spike laughed, walking toward Zander slowly. He was careful about not knocking anyone over with his spiked tail and everyone cleared a path for him. Finally, Ducky and Petrie let Zander go and Spike nudged him with his small head. Zander sniffed Spike's newly grown defense system.

"I can still speak the things you taught me," Spike said.

"And we can have secret conversations like this," Zander replied.

Cera walked right in between them, arrogantly sticking her tail up, which was an old habit of hers. She also snorted. Spike backed up a bit, almost hitting a bush with his tail, and grunted in disapproval.

"Can you speak _normally_ please?" she asked. "I can't tell whether or not you're whispering insults about everybody else."

Just then, a hollow-horn, who must have been Oryt's mother, emerged from the crowd with a triumphant smile. Zander remembered her immediately, thinking of his own childhood and of hers.

"I remember you," she said. "You spared me when my parents were hunted."

"Thosa," he replied. "My condolences to your family."

Littlefoot cut them off. "Chomper," he said. "May I speak with you privately?"

The two walked off to a more isolated part of the Great Valley. Zander could see everyone watching them as they departed. A few, most notably Cera's mate Izer, looked at him with suspicion. Cera nudged Izer softly, reassuring him that Zander wasn't going to eat their leader once they were out of sight. In any case, Littlefoot was both smart and strong enough to take him on if he tried.

They found a clearing and Zander recognized it as a place where they used to play. He looked at Littlefoot, who seemed mournful, and nudged his small head gently. He hoped that Littlefoot didn't smell his breath. Luckily, Littlefoot didn't even seem to notice anything.

"Hey," Littlefoot sighed. "Chomper?"

"Hmm?"

Littlefoot moved some dirt around with his foot. "Sorry I acted so bitterly when I last saw you."

Zander chuckled a bit, despite the morbid topic. "It's okay. After the older generations died, I would have been banned anyway. Someone would be hostile toward me at some point or another. It's nothing new."

Littlefoot relaxed a bit. "How was life in the Mysterious Beyond?"

"Not many insects," Zander replied.

Littlefoot struggled to laugh at the morbid joke. Instead, he asked. "Have you ever singlehandedly taken a life?"

Zander shuffled his claw-equipped feet. "Yes. I have done that. I did it even before I met Ruby. Speaking of which, where is she?"

"Well, Ruby was caught eating fish," Littlefoot explained. "And after you left, they were even wary of omnivorous creatures. You can guess how someone like Rhett over there would react to that."

Zander looked at Ali and Rhett whispering things to each other, both with smiles on their faces. Their children were running around and Zander couldn't help but notice that one missing child who died so those three carnivore sisters could eat. He wondered how long it took for them to mourn.

"He ended up trampling her," Littlefoot said. "Not that he didn't receive punishment for it."

"Littlefoot?" Zander asked. "Why did you never have children?"

Littlefoot chuckled in a way that reminded Zander of his grandfather. The apatosaurus looked at the Great Valley denizens, nodding toward them, and Zander looked in that direction.

"Do you see all of them, Chomper?" Littlefoot asked.

Zander nodded.

"_They_ are my children, old friend. All of them are under my guidance." Littlefoot decided to change the topic. "Do you have a family in the Mysterious Beyond?"

Zander replied. "I guess I sort of had a mate, but I wasn't close with her. She thought I was deformed."

"Deformed?!"

Zander nodded. "She kept asking if my parents were siblings. It turns out, the one you thought was my dad wasn't actually my dad."

"Then who was it?"

Zander took in a deep breath. "I'm not entirely sure about this, but I know his name, and I think my real father killed your mother."

"What do you mean?" Littlefoot asked, his voice a little raised. "How do you know this?"

"As I said, I'm not entirely sure," he replied. "Though I do know my mother, his half-sister, didn't mate with him by choice."

"That's the past," Littlefoot said. "Now, onto present matters, there's less and less water every day. That isn't something we haven't dealt with before, but I don't know what could cause the drought this time."

"It's because of Red Claw."

Littlefoot stood straight up. "What?"

"Red Claw is telling a bunch of Sharpteeth to make a dam. He's also trying to find a way to lower the amount of food for everybody here."

"Why would they work together?" Littlefoot asked. "There's so little food for them outside. They're always fighting over stuff."

"Well, Red Claw is rewarding them with _food_, if you catch my drift."

"And how do you know all of this?"

Zander looked at the walls of the Great Valley, wondering what was happening outside them. "Remember Thud?"

Littlefoot nodded.

"He defected," Zander explained. "Red Claw threatened Thud that he would kill his family if he disobeyed. Thud stayed and Red Claw killed them anyway, so he decided to leave. He let me live the day I had to leave the Great Valley."

* * *

Some time that night, Zander decided to leave in order to get some food. He tried to find that exit and hoped that he could go back in later. It was a pain to move the rocks around, but he soon got the hang of it, and he left with ease. Zander ended up running into Thorgeir, who had new information to tell him.

"I can't stay here long," Thorgeir said. "I'm supposed to find hiding places."

"Hiding places?" Zander asked, careful not to be too loud.

"Yes. Anyway, I found out how they were going to artificially reduce the amount of vegetation."

Zander listened closely.

"Duncan sent out lower predators with nests full of locust nymphs. They're very close to maturation. They were instructed to put them around the perimeter of the valley so that, by tomorrow afternoon, all the vegetation will be gone."

"Do you know where they're placed?"

Thorgeir shook his head. "Only Seasnan knows."

Zander decided to go back into the Great Valley to warn Littlefoot and the others when Thorgeir stopped him, calling his name.

"Zander," he said. "There are some T-Rexes that Duncan just recruited. They claim to know you."


	17. Part 4: Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Zander managed to catch a bit of prey in the morning before he entered the Great Valley again. He vigorously licked his teeth clean, careful not to show any blood on them. When he went back in to that haven, he saw that the area around him was relatively empty. There were several herbivores walking to the direction of a disappearing waterfall where Littlefoot stood. Zander took the opportunity to fix his breath by chewing on some nearby flowers. They tasted disgusting.

Zander chewed them long enough and spat them out, wondering how anyone could like the taste of them. He walked to where everyone else was and saw that there was very little water in the pond. A few children were asking their parents where the water went. Their questions were answered with simple shrugs.

"Emergency meeting!" Littlefoot called. "Is everyone here?"

"Ugh!" Cera replied. "Is it about that water thing again? We can't just sit here talking about it and expect things to get better!"

Zander jumped in front of both of them, causing the little water they had left to ripple. Unaware that he was baring his teeth, he accidentally frightened all of the herbivores in the space. Littlefoot made a "ahem" sound to him and let him know what he was doing.

"It's more than just the water," Zander exclaimed. "This isn't a natural drought. The Sharpteeth are doing this on purpose!"

Littlefoot and Zander heard gasps and murmurs from the crowd. Cera just stared at him, as if unsure whether to feel grateful for this new knowledge or suspicious of why he knew it. Littlefoot seemed to trust him. The crowd was still chatting amongst themselves and Zander let out a growl to get their attention.

"Chomper!" Cera groaned. "You're trying to get their attention, not _scare _them."

"Are any of you listening?" Zander asked, his carnivore accent more apparent than usual.

Everyone froze, giving Zander the floor. "Red Claw organized all the Sharpteeth, both big and small, and told them to build a dam to block the water. He also put nests of soon-to-mature swarming leaf gobblers all around the Great Valley wall. Red Claw's doing this to force everyone out of the Great Valley and become food for _all _of the Sharpteeth!"

"How long do we have?" one herbivore asked.

"I don't know," Zander replied. "It could be within a few hours. We could try to destroy the leaf gobbler nests, but we'd still have to leave to destroy the dam."

"We're going to die!" someone cried.

Cera huffed. "Well this is great. We have a bunch of Sharpteeth probably ready to kill us if we step foot outside the valley."

Littlefoot stepped forward. "Calm down, everyone. We're not going to die."

"And why not?" asked Izer.

"Well, we have Chomper on our side!" announced Littlefoot.

Zander stood beside Littlefoot. "Listen to me! You have your myths, do you not? You have your stories of the Lone Dinosaur, right? The Sharpteeth have their tales too! One tale is about the Plant-Eating Children who killed the once most fearsome Sharptooth ever, and this Sharptooth makes Red Claw look like a hatchling, from what I have heard. These Plant-Eating Children have grown up. Do you know who they are?"

Everyone shook their heads.

"Well, I see one over there, stuffing his mouth."

Everyone chuckled at the sight of Spike, who smiled when he was mentioned. The rest turned their attention back to Zander.

"And one is flying above us all."

Petrie decided to land next to Ducky.

"And he landed right beside another one of the heroes."

Ducky noticed everyone's eyes on her and blushed, letting out a high-pitched giggle. "Yep, yep, yep."

Zander looked in Cera's direction. "There's one with her horns grown in."

Just as expected, Cera flaunted her horns and smiled, appreciating the attention she got. Even Izer was impressed with her.

"And the leader of the Plant-Eating Children," Zander said. "Is now the leader of the Great Valley."

No one was particularly surprised that Littlefoot was one of the Herbivore Children. He didn't react any certain way and decided to get back to the task at hand, which was to solve the issue of an artificial drought and famine, not to mention an army of carnivores.

"Now," Littlefoot said. "We have to organize a plan."

"There's probably Sharpteeth all around the outside of the Great Valley wall," Zander added.

"For now, we can try to find and destroy the nests of the swarming leaf gobblers," Littlefoot stated. "That means we won't run out of food so quickly. That will buy us time so we can organize and figure out how to fight the Sharpteeth."

Pretty soon, everyone got to work. All of the flyers soared around the perimeter, sniffing for strange smelling nests. Zander had no idea what they smelled like, so he couldn't help much, not to mention he wouldn't be able to get into tight spaces like he used to. He paced around, hoping that it would be somewhat effective, and wondered how many nests there were. Littlefoot got reports of some destroyed locust nests every now and then, but Zander doubted that they would be able to get all of them.

"Littlefoot," Cera whispered. "We have to start thinking of ways to fight off the Sharpteeth."

"True," Littlefoot said, pausing before he addressed Zander. "Chomper, you said that there would be Sharpteeth all along the outside of the wall, right?"

"Yes."

"Well, we have boulders lining up the top, right?

Cera nodded, looking around her. Littlefoot smiled.

"Okay, so what if we used those boulders to eliminate the forces around the wall? That way, we have a higher chance of finding the dam and returning the water."

Other adults were listening in, agreeing with the idea. Zander heard murmuring, as usual, and he wondered how many would be waiting for them around the perimeter of the wall. He hoped there wouldn't be too many.

Just then, everyone heard buzzing coming in from the east side of the Great Valley wall. A swarm of locusts, which Zander guessed came from two nests, started to consume a portion of the leaves. He hoped that everyone ate enough to be up to battle.

"Swarming leaf-gobblers!" Ducky shouted.

"Me remember those," Petrie replied.

Everyone started screaming. Some adults rushed to take as much food as they could off the trees and hide it in dug out holes, which they would hide with their bodies. Zander was glad to know that they at least had some back up plan. The food they salvaged wasn't much, but it was better than nothing.

The locusts, after being unable to access the adults' hidden stash, flew away. Zander wondered if the locusts would consume all the vegetation outside the Great Valley. His thoughts were cut short when Littlefoot got everyone's attention.

"Now, you can either eat or save the remainder of your food," Littlefoot said. "Meanwhile, who is willing to help us with eliminating the forces outside the wall?"

Aside from the original five Herbivore Children, everyone only reluctantly volunteered. Zander wasn't particularly surprised by their cowardice, though he could see it greatly disappointed Littlefoot. Cera didn't seem too surprised either. In any case, Littlefoot managed to get them to work.

Zander climbed as much as he could so he could see how many predators there were beyond the wall. Sure enough, the perimeter was packed with velociraptors and other carnivores creatures of that size. Among one of them was Thorgeir, whom he hoped wouldn't be killed in the planned attack. He guessed that Seasnan would be close by. That one, Zander hoped, would die soon enough.

"Everyone know the signal?" Littlefoot asked. It was the flick of his tail. Everyone nodded.

The Herbivore Children (of course, now herbivore _adults_) helped position the boulders in the right place. No one below seemed to know what they were doing, which was an advantage for those within the Great Valley. Zander made sure to put a little reinforcement near the exit where everyone would leave, lest the fighting party get ambushed before they could get near the artificial dam.

The boulders were in the right place. Littlefoot looked at everyone, flicking his tail. Zander looked around, seeing all of the herbivores lining up the wall slowly get the signal. Then, everyone near Littlefoot rolled the boulders down, soon followed by those farther from him. Zander found the ripple effect pretty neat.

Zander peeked over, seeing Thorgeir shout something to him.

"Someone missed Thud!" Cera said.

"Leave Thud alone!" Littlefoot replied.

"Are you crazy?!"

"It's okay," Zander replied, still looking at Thorgeir. "Thud defected."

Thorgeir was still struggling to make contact with Zander while still appearing loyal. After most of the predators were either dead or injured, Thorgeir shouted something.

"Reinforcements are coming!"

Zander turned to Littlefoot. "Thud says more are coming!"

Everyone within close proximity spread the message all around before they pushed up more boulders. Zander looked at the Mysterious Beyond, seeing Thorgeir disappear into a crevice, and spotted replacement forces lining up the wall. They were fewer in number, Zander noticed, so this force was relatively easy to defeat. Many shrieked in surprise, much to Zander's amusement.

"Where are they – oof! – coming from?" Cera asked as she heaved a particularly heavy boulder.

"They're probably centered near the dam," Littlefoot replied.

Zander sneaked off to the exit he used the night before. No one, not even Littlefoot, seemed to notice him, so he took the opportunity to open up the exit for the adults. First thing he needed to do was clear that area.

Zander pushed away the boulders that blocked the exit, alerting the nearby velociraptors. His body started to hurt a little bit, but he knew there were other things to worry about, such as letting in the tiny predators.

"There!" one carnivore shouted. "An entrance. He found the entrance!"

"How did he get inside?" another one asked.

They all went up to him, assuming he was their ally, while Zander waited patiently. A few gathered around him, sniffing him a bit, and Zander caught one trying to slip into the Great Valley. He snarled at that one.

"What?" the unsuspecting velociraptor asked.

Zander refused to coherently speak. Instead, he let out a loud roar, frightening everyone, and he got the attention of a few herbivores within the valley. The offender stood still and Zander took the opportunity to take a bite out of him.

"Aaaaaaaah!" the little guy screamed, his ribs crushed by the larger predator's teeth.

Zander threw it into the distance, watching it land on another Fast Biter. Those who had gathered around him attempted to attack him, but Zander caught one of his assailants in his mouth while smacking several of them with his tail. He also managed to merely step on many of them, something with caused him to laugh.

"This is what Duncan has for an army?" he asked all of them.

There was one left. Before she could run away, Zander grabbed her with his mouth. However, he only gently bit her, using enough force to leave a mark. Surprised that he spared her, she froze, her legs becoming weak.

"I'll use you as a warning for Duncan," Zander told the girl. "Run off now."

* * *

"Is everyone ready?"

Everyone nodded at Littlefoot's question. They were all outside the Great Valley, with the exception of the children, whom the parents strictly told to stay inside. The pathway in and out was blocked so predators wouldn't get inside. Zander looked ahead, hoping it wouldn't take too long for their group to get to the artificial dam, and started walking, skipping over the dead bodies.

"Might as well get something to eat, Chomper," Cera teased.

Zander took her seriously and took a bite out of one velociraptor female. This unnerved everyone, but he didn't care.

It took about half a day for them to walk around the perimeter. The entire time, a few adults complained and everyone else told them to shut up. Zander couldn't help but laugh at the situation, despite how desperate it was. Meanwhile, Littlefoot and Cera were talking about the last time they had to break down a dam.

"I still remember all those flying rocks," Littlefoot said.

"Those were cool," Cera remembered fondly. "Though causing the water to stop wasn't nice."

"At least that gave us experience," Littlefoot shrugged.

"Ha!"

They made it to the river where Zander first met Ruby. He could smell all the predators, but he couldn't see them. Everyone noticed Zander's worry.

"Be prepared for an ambush!" he called to everyone.

All the adults looked around, staying close to one another. They made sure to stay one group so, if there were an ambush, they wouldn't be an easy force to take down. Littlefoot looked around, not being able to see any sign of Red Claw's army.

"Now!" Zander heard a carnivore shout.

"They're coming!" Zander warned his group.

Suddenly, predators from all sides charged them. The Herbivore Children attempted to form a wall around the other adults in attempt to allow them to move toward the dam. A velociraptor bit Cera's tail and she smashed it into the ground, breaking its skull. She used her front horns to stab a larger predator several times, causing it to emit screeches that Zander couldn't stand. Cera managed to use the dead body to kill several others, knocking them down like bowling pins.

Meanwhile, Littlefoot lured a pack of them towards his head before he turned around and knocked over several of them with his tail. A bunch of them ended up hitting rock structures jutting out from the crowd, giving them broken ribs and teeth. Petrie resorted to flying and dropping rocks in attempt to disorientate them. In that state, the predators would be too busy to notice Ducky delivering a few blows. Ducky wasn't nearly as strong as the other four that made up her group of friends, which Zander found to be a shame.

Not far from the rest of the group, Spike used his tail to impale several of his enemies. Both Rhett and Ali were managing, which almost amused Zander, considering that Rhett was a huge coward when he first met him. Zander decided to help them a bit, biting off of before it could land on Ali's back. He heard a scream and turned his head.

Thosa, an herbivore he saved years ago, was just killed by a velociraptor.

Jade and Sphene, Ruby's siblings, looked at Echo and Seasnan, seeing Eunoe behind them. Immediately, Zander roared at Seasnan with a malicious smile.

"Remember me?!" he screamed. "Remember when you always tried to kill me?"

Zander only made a few steps toward him before he was able to scratch most of his face with his claws. With Seasnan down, Zander was able to attack Echo. He simply kicked her, making large incisions into her abdomen with the claws on his feet, and accidentally crushed her bones when her limp body got stuck on his foot. Immediately, Jade and Sphene leaped toward the juvenile Eunoe. Sphene got his hands wrapped around her neck. Eunoe kicked in attempt to fight him off, but Jade simply grabbed a rock and smashed her hand.

Zander looked in the direction of the place where he first met the young kids and saw them peeking at their parents. He, at first, only saw Ato's head, but he then saw the tip of Bambo's horn and then an inch of Oryt's head. He would have snarled at them, except it would only draw attention to them if it hadn't been done already.

Already, a few predators noticed their presence and slowly approached them. Zander would have gone back to protect them had an unfamiliar T-Rex not bit his tail. Cera had come to the rescue, stabbing the predator with her horns and causing blood to spew everywhere.

"Go, Chomper!" she shouted.

Zander immediately went for the kids. He knocked away a few small predators with his head along when he noticed Thorgeir standing in front of the kids, facing their potential attackers with a snarl and bloody claws.

"Stay the fuck away from these kids," Thorgeir threatened.

They simply laughed. "Why would you defend a _meal_, you idiot?"

"Better than following a T-Rex who won't keep his promise," Thorgeir muttered.

The two predators simply looked at each other with confused expressions when Zander swooped down, taking bites out of both. He then knocked them to the side and snarled at the kids.

"Whatever happened to you kids staying _inside_ the valley?" he asked them.

Ato's head sunk. "Well, I just wanted, uh..."

"Well, shut up. Get back inside."

Zander watched carefully as the children retreated back into the safety of the virtually empty valley. He heard a thud come from behind him and turned around, seeing Littlefoot get knocked over by two sister T-Rexes that he recognized (and hated himself for it).

"Help!" Littlefoot shouted.

_Damn female T-Rexes going to kill my best friend?!_ He let out a fierce roar. Cera heard him and he nodded in Littlefoot's direction. Immediately, she turned to the darker one of the female T-Rexes and stabbed her repeatedly, forcing her to yell in pain. Cera's horns didn't make it to Sorciere's heart. Instead, Cera slid them out and Sorciere faced the triceratops, both of them poised to fight each other. Now, only Elvire was attacking Littlefoot. Zander took the opportunity to catch her by surprise.

He quickly rammed into her, allowing Littlefoot to get back up and help the other adults move forward toward the dam. Elvire didn't even sense him coming. When Zander fell on top of her, she let out a pained moan and Zander wondered if he broke one of her bones. Something inside him hoped that he caused more damage than that.

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Cera's horn finally stab Sorciere's heart. Zander noticed Noir-Laoise, Sorciere's half-sister, attempting to fight Spike. Spike, seeing that she was smaller than most T-Rexes, simply smacked her abdomen with his spiked tail once. It disorientated her long enough for Spike to inflict more wounds. Zander assumed that Noir-Laoise would bleed to death.

Zander turned his attention to the female he had pinned to the ground. "Why did you fight on Duncan's side?!"

"The spoils of the hunt, you piece of flyer-shit!" Elvire cursed back.

"Liar!" Zander replied. "There's another reason, isn't there?"

Elvire flashed a malicious smile. "Duncan and I have the same pushover of a mother, that's why."

"And who is his father?" Zander asked, digging the tip of his claw into her abdomen.

"Fuck, I don't know! Somebody named Asar?"

_Duncan is my half-uncle._ Zander shuddered at the thought of being related to quite a few awful Sharpteeth. First, the one that killed Littlefoot's mother, now the one that tried to kill him and terrorized his friends in his youth. Who else was he related to?

"Let me live," Elvire pleaded. "I'm carrying your egg. Let me live."

"Only if you defect," Zander replied. "If I find you continuing to target my friends, I _will_ kill you."

Zander let her up and she stumbled to her feet. He snarled at her, making sure that she would stay away from his friends, and he turned his attention to Virtus, who was currently trying to target Ducky. Zander could see that Virtus had her cornered.

"Help, Spike!" Ducky shouted. "Somebody!"

"NO!" Spike shouted in the carnivore language.

Virtus, completely caught by surprise, turned around to see who it was. Spike took the opportunity to launch a surprise attack. He positioned himself perfectly so that, when he swung his tail, one of the spikes would poke right through the eye and possibly stab part of the brain. Spike executed the move perfectly, killing Virtus in an instant.

After fighting off several more predators, Zander took to following Petrie, who was attempting to dismantle the dam. Petrie flew around, trying to find loose rocks, and kept prying at a few specific boulders. Zander ignored the pain of several bite marks he received and assisted Petrie, knocking down a couple of boulders and causing leaks within the dam.

"Red Claw is probably nearby," Zander told Petrie.

"You go find him," Petrie replied, flapping his large wings. "Me stay here and take apart dam."

Zander nodded and retreated behind the dam, which led to a too-empty canyon that was surprisingly dark. He sniffed the air, which had an unmistakable smell. All of the sudden, something hard hit Zander square in the face, knocking him over.

Zander shook his head, frantically looking around when he felt something heavy pin him down. He looked up and saw a T-Rex with the most familiar scar there was, matched with an equally menacing grin.

"What do you want from me?" he choked out.

The sadist only smiled. "Oh, just blood. It's a nice scent for this place, don't you think?"

"Why?" Zander asked. "Why did you target only me those years ago? Of all available to you, why me?"

Duncan sighed, adjusting his foot to suit Zander's rising and falling chest. "Well, let's just say it started before you were hatched. It was when I was just a child, before I desired to hurt those of my own kind. I had a mommy and a daddy and I would have had some brothers and sisters when along came your mother. Neith-Maia was her name, though I'm sure you know that. She followed my father – her father, too – back to his nest. She met my mother, screamed at our father, and crushed the eggs that would have contained my pretty baby brothers and sisters. You know, it was _she_ who gave me my infamous scar."

Zander wanted to spit on him.

"And since then, I had sworn vengeance on her. I wanted to kill anyone that meant anything to her. It was because of _her_ that I became like this. It was her fault that my mother was weakened. Eventually, my mother didn't want me! Can you imagine that?" Duncan asked, moving his foot to slightly scratch Zander's skin. "It was her fault that my father left me."

Zander used one of his feet to scratch Duncan's ankle, throwing him off a bit, and then managed to slip out from under Duncan's foot. He steadied himself on his own two feet, looking at his enemy dead in the eye.

"Duncan, just stop this. Please."

The older male let out a laugh. "You know Neith-Maia had a mate before she screwed your father? Well, I killed him too, not to mention the daughter they had. What was her name? Oh, Chrissy or some shit. I had little hesitation when I took her life and, believe me, little biter, I'm going to be even less hesitant in killing you."

"The myth is true, you know!" Zander shouted.

Duncan snarled. "What myth?!"

"The myth of the Herbivore Children!" he replied. "The one of little leaf-eating hatchlings defeating a great T-Rex. Oh, and those Herbivore Children are full grown, slaying your army?"

"They couldn't have existed!" Duncan roared with anger.

"Really? They couldn't have?" Zander screamed. "Then how did they survive the Most Feared Sharptooth multiple times?"

"Just shut your ass up!" Duncan roared, lunging toward him with an open mouth.

Zander moved out of the way just in time for his throat to be spared from Duncan's teeth. Duncan steadied himself after a humiliating attempt to piece Zander's jugular and used his tail to trip him. Zander quickly rolled back up, stepping backward, wondering what was happening outside the dark canyon.

"Hard to see, isn't it?" Duncan taunted.

Zander headbutted Duncan in the chest before piercing his skin with his teeth. Duncan simply roared in anger as Zander tasted his half-uncle's blood and tried to jump on top of him. Zander moved out of the way quickly, almost allowing Duncan to land on him. Duncan only managed to step on Zander's tail.

Zander used the claws on his feet to scratch Duncan's thigh. Zander remembered this working on his mother once and hoped that it would work on Duncan. The older male had to step back, screaming in pain, and Zander took the opportunity to pin Duncan to the ground. He landed with a hard _thump_.

"Do you really think you can kill me?" Duncan taunted, his gums bleeding somehow.

"Duncan, you idiot," Zander replied. "You were the Most Feared Sharptooth. However, there are those who remember one that surpassed you both in sheer might and in unfathomable cruelty. Do you know what happened to him?"

Duncan shook his head stupidly.

"He died at the nails of the Herbivore Children," answered Zander. "And don't think I won't kill you for terrorizing my friends after all these years."

Not even a moment after he said that, Zander lunged for Duncan's throat, tearing it apart with his teeth. Blood squirted everywhere, getting onto Zander's face and teeth. He took in a whiff of his slaughtered enemy before he completely detached the head from the body with a strange, predatory satisfaction.

Zander dragged the head to the top of the dam, where the light seemed to attack his eyes. He squinted a bit as he dropped the head, letting it roll down to the feet of his living allies, who stared at him with terror.

"Listen, all of you," he addressed the predators. "The Most Feared Sharptooth that you allied yourselves with is dead. As the one who usurped him of his unneeded power, I will be taking his place. I, Zander, the deformed freak you must have laughed at when you first laid eyes on me, end this now! For all of you who heard the myth: the Herbivore Children are real. They killed a Sharptooth that surpassed Duncan in ferocity, yet he died thanks to those hatchlings. Don't think I won't have them, now full grown, as my allies when I tell you all to scatter!"

Immediately, the lesser predators ran for the hills. Only Elvire remained and Zander could see the sly smile formed by her scaly lips.

"Duncan promised us the spoils, has he not?" she asked. "Why must we deny ourselves such a reward."

"Elvire!" he roared, stepping closer to her. "Did I not guarantee your survival only if you defected?"

"Well, yeah, but–"

"And did I not tell you that if I find it you didn't, I would _kill_ you?!"

Elvire's eyes widened with fear. She moved her feet in the direction away from Zander, but he managed to bite her tail and drag her to the ground. She yelped when the rocks cut into her thinning skin, which only served to amuse her assailant. Elvire and Zander made contact for the last time.

"Bye, you little traitor," Zander said to Elvire before he ripped out her jugular with his teeth and tore a large piece of flesh off of her abdomen.

Zander remembered Elvire claiming to have an egg and wondered if it was true, so he decided to tear the skin near her cloaca gently. After carefully peeling away layers of flesh, he used a claw to cut open the uterus, which contained a fully formed egg.

Littlefoot, Cera, Ducky, Petrie and Spike stood in awe as Zander carefully slipped the egg out of the dead body of its mother. He slowly got it away from the carnage and set it up in a warm spot away from the dam, which the herd took to dismantling. There were already quite a few leaks in it.

"Chomper," said Littlefoot. "We managed to get the water back, but the food won't grow again for a long time. We need to find a new place to live until then."

Zander understood. "You're going to need protection, Littlefoot. These aren't the only Sharpteeth in the Mysterious Beyond."

Ducky jumped in. "Would you protect us? Huh, _huh_?"

Zander replied. "Yes. I will. This is my vow."

Everyone began to stare at the egg. Zander began to lick the blood off of it, making sure there weren't any cracks, and then saw everyone's eyes on him. He straightened himself out a little.

"This is my egg," he explained. "I'm the father."

"What are you going to name it?"

Zander looked at it. "Um... I want it named the way you're named."

Littlefoot chuckled. "Okay."

Cera, Petrie, Ducky and Spike watched Littlefoot and Zander walk into the distance, presumably so they can talk privately. They guessed that they were heading west because the sun was setting behind the pair, obscuring their appearance somewhat. All that the four could see were black silhouettes showing no features of adulthood. Suddenly, they both saw Littlefoot arch his neck to look down at Zander, who was standing on his toes to reach up to his foster brother. Cera couldn't help but feel nostalgic.

"It's as if not even a day passed since his hatching years ago," Cera said, prompting a nod from everyone.


	18. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

A single female T-Rex, sporting gold and purple scales, watched over a little girl playing at the shore of the salty water. She thought back to her youth, thinking of how well her father taught her to hunt, and hoped that she could do just as good of a job with her daughter. The juvenile female never looked as happy as she did when she could spend time splashing the water around.

"Mama!" shouted the little girl. "Look! I'm making _big _splashes."

"You be careful now, Gentle Claw," said the female, who was named Little Tooth when she first hatched. "Remember what I told you about the dangers of that water!"

Gentle Claw sighed. "I know, I know!"

Little Tooth enjoyed the soft, salty breeze that always accompanied visits to the Big Water. Her father used to bring her here and point to an odd island, telling a strange story of the things he did there with funny plant-eating children. At first, she thought it was ridiculous that he would do such a thing, but growing up beside him taught her that there was more than one way to live.

She peered over at the dead metriacanthosaurus that she spent a lot of energy killing that day. The smell of its blood was starting to get to her and, as soon as she heard her own stomach rumble, she knew that her daughter would get hungry as well.

"Come on, Gentle Claw," she called. "Get over here before your food gets bugs!"

"I like bugs, though!" the younger female announced as she retreated from the shoreline to her mother's side. "This one is a big one."

Little Tooth chuckled. "Yes, now dig in!"

Not much later, Gentle Claw started to gaze into the milky eyes of her prey, cocking her head to the side. Her mother licked the blood off of her face.

"You are such a messy eater," she teased.

Gentle Claw didn't take her eyes off the face of the metriacanthosaurus. "Mama?"

"Hmm?"

"Why do we eat other Sharpteeth?"

Little Tooth was glad to tell the story. "Well, for years and years, moon after moon, sun after sun, the Sharpteeth terrorized the Flatteeth, not thinking of their own actions or what the victims could feel. They did not ponder the idea of guilt or empathy. They simply killed mercilessly. However, all of that changed when the Benign Predator was born. After learning his story, I decided I should only kill the guilty to survive and that I should not relish in shedding blood. I spare those who can't defend themselves."

"Oh," Gentle Claw said, still having blood on her teeth. "Mama?"

"Yes?"

"Do you believe the myth of the Herbivore Children is true?"

Little Tooth suddenly felt a little sad upon hearing that question. She sighed, staring at the setting sun that caused the sky to show an array of colors rather than the bland blue that occupied the sky for most of the day. She turned her attention to that little island in the distance and saw the land bridge connecting it to the shoreline form again, wondering how many steps it would take to get to the other side of it.

"Baby girl," said the mother. "I know it's true."


End file.
